Super Koopa World
by Walkazo
Summary: The third in the "Super Koopa" trilogy. It's been nine years since Bowser's wife returned, and peace reigns. But as a merciless army prepares to invade the Mushroom World, everything is about to change.
1. Prologue: 1993

**Disclaimer: I do not own the **_**Mario**_** series, or any of Nintendo's trademarked people, places and things; I do own a couple characters and the plot, however. This stands for the entire story, so I'm only saying it once.**

**Author's Note: This is the third and final installment of my **_**Super Koopa**_** trilogy. There will be no sequels. Therefore, I hope this story will live up to its hype and prove an enjoyable and memorable read. This prologue is really long, and mostly exposition, I'm afraid, as it covers a period in time ignored by my earlier stories (it would have just confused them and taken some of the thunder away from this one at the same time). I've retconned a lot of stuff from the original publication of **_**Super Koopas**_**, so if you read it when it first came out, a few things here might seem inconsistent. And for that, I apologize.**

**Rated T for violence, language, mature themes and character death.**

Super Koopa World

Despite her inclination towards secrecy, the story of Bowselta, Queen of the Koopas, soon became common knowledge. She grew up as a notorious thief and plotted to kill Prince Bowser Koopa, only to fall in love with him instead. They had eight children and led the Koopa Kingdom through its glory days. Then it all came crashing down.

Bowser wanted to prove he was as good a king as his legendary father, the late King Morton Koopa, and Bowselta simply wanted to slaughter the enemies of the Koopas, so that they alone could rule the world. Some say there were other factors at work as well, but whatever the reason, the Koopa Troop invaded the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom in the summer of 1989. It was an easy conquest, but they were soon driven back by a pair of plumbers known as the Mario Bros., who Bowser's Chief Advisor, Kamek Koopa, had predicted would be the end of the Koopa Kingdom long ago.

Stubborn and proud, Bowser and Bowselta did not give up, and the Koopa Troop marched into countless unwinnable battles for the next year and a half. Then, in an effort to discover the origins of the humans and, supposedly, a way to banish the Mario Bros. from the Mushroom World, Bowselta got herself sucked through an interdimensional portal to the native realm of the humans, Earth. It took her three years to get back, during which time, Bowser became the laughing stock of the realm.

The King of the Koopas had been heartbroken by his wife's disappearance, and after a few months of futile searching, Bowser gave up any hope of seeing her again. It was a tragic and piteous story to say the least, but when Bowser tried to drown his sorrows with Princess Peach Toadstool's love, the sympathy turned to ridicule. Some found the Koopa King's crush on the Mushroom Princess romantic, others thought it was cute but hopeless, and many were downright disgusted by it. But it made no difference to Bowser. Deaf to the nay-sayers, he kidnapped Peach around the clock; sometimes it was as simple as breaking down the door and taking her back to his castle twice a week, but other times he crafted elaborate plots to try and foil her intrepid saviours, Mario and Luigi.

Getting to know the Koopa King, Peach realized he wasn't so bad a person as she had originally thought, and while she never returned his affection, she tried her best to make friends with Bowser and forge peace between their kingdoms.

Everyone knows this never happened.

Everyone knows Bowselta soon returned and banished all thoughts of the princess from her husband's mind.

Everyone knows she then defeated the Mario Bros. and took over not only the Mushroom Kingdom, but Sarasaland as well. But it did not last long: Kamek Koopa, who always hated the queen, kidnapped the eight Koopalings in hopes of luring their parents into a deadly trap. Kamek's plans also failed, however, for Bowselta anticipated her defeat at the hands of the normally-heroic Kongs that Kamek had brainwashed into fighting the Koopas, and had no choice but to retrieve the Mario Bros. In return for their aid in rescuing the Koopalings, the Koopas had to return all their conquered lands, but the truce was short-lived.

Everyone knows the next few years were plagued with Koopan attacks as Bowselta furiously tried to reclaim the Mushroom Kingdom, only to lose her own soldiers by the hundreds. Finally, in 1996, the invasions ceased. The Koopalings had been sucked into an alternate reality of their own, and narrowly escaped death at the hands of King Morton Koopa, who had survived and conquered the world beyond the Magic Mirror. Disillusioned with his legendary yet heartless father, and afraid of the corruption that comes with ruling the world as he had in the other dimension, Bowser's own aspirations cooled. Bowselta never lost her thirst for revenge against the humans, but was willing to set her aspirations aside for the time being and focus on rearing her children. The Mushroom World entered a time of peace, and everyone believed the tumultuous time of the King and Queen of the Koopas had come to an end.

All of this is public knowledge. All of this is documented. All of this is retold time and time again by Koopas, Mushroomians and beyond.

But this is not the full story.

The truth is, during his wife's absence, Bowser never gave up hope. Somewhere, deep down inside him, he knew Bowselta was alive, and even as he strived to make Peach love him, he was still thinking of his long lost queen, and where she might be hiding. It all came into sharp relief during one of Bowser's stranger adventures: he travelled through multiple dimensions with the Mario Bros., saved the universe from being destroyed in an all-encompassing Void, and was even forcibly wed to Peach. She dismissed the marriage as nothing, and while Bowser knew she was right, he had a good time of pretending they were husband and wife for a short while. Then, a month after he returned from the whole affair, he was blasted out of his castle window and during his subsequent coma, he relived his time with his real wife, Bowselta. Only then did he recall her fascination with the human origin story – of two boats that sailed through a portal from another universe and laid claim the to the Mushroom World, destroying everyone who opposed them with their black magic weaponry. In the past, he had never quite grasped what she had been researching, but having spent a few weeks tromping through countless dimensions himself, Bowser realized that his wife had been right. He knew then that she was in the human world, waiting to be rescued.

- Antarctica, Earth; December, 1993 -

"I love penguins."

"Yes, you keep saying that," growled Wendy, reclining on her heated lawn-chair, basking in the never-setting Antarctic summer sun.

Lemmy scowled at his sister before letting out a wistful sigh. "I wish there were penguins here. It's _soooo_ boring."

"Maybe if you hadn't been such a wuss and helped us fight Luigi, you wouldn't be so bored," smirked Iggy, who was perched upon his own lawn-chair, but shielded from the UV-spewing sun by an umbrella.

"Yeah, you should've just stayed home and guarded the castle with Junior and Kamek," added Wendy.

"I wanted to play in the snow," whined Lemmy.

"It wouldn't've mattered anyway," growled Roy, limping up to his siblings from the distant castle. "Dat little worm ain't fightin' fair – it's like I couldn't hurt 'im!"

"So you got thrashed, in other words," sneered Wendy.

"Vat's Luigi doing now?" asked Ludwig, looking a little worried. "Zee only sing standing betveen him and Mario at zis point is Fazzer."

"Yeah, da jig's pretty much up. Luigi was still wanderin' around looking fo' anyting he missed – or da way to Mario or whateva – when Kammy sent me out here, but he's gonna get ta Mario and Pops any minute now."

"Then he'll be sorry he ever messed with us," grinned Lemmy.

"No, Pop'll be da one who'll be sorry – haven't you been payin' attention ta what _any_ of us've been sayin', meat-head?"

"Yeah," said Morton, taking over for Roy. "Luigi's pretty much invincible around here – it's really weird. Or maybe our powers are just shot in this dimension: you know the old legends about the 'black magic' of the human world. We're totally aliens here, whereas Luigi's ancestors came from Earth. Or at least some of them did – I read a few of Mum's books about the invasion, and there were only a couple hundred humans between the two ships. And they were all dudes. They bred with the native humans. There are only a few purely Mushroomian human families left, actually – you know, the ones with pointy ears. Like Wario and Waluigi; but there's lots over in the isolated Waffle Kingdom. Though some scientists say a few races of the Mushroomian humans had rounded ears like the Earth humans, and-"

"Okay, okay, enough of the boring history lesson, Morton: we do _not_ need to be preached to about human pedigrees, thank you very much," drawled Wendy, adjusting her sun-glasses.

"Well, even if you guys had trouble with Luigi, maybe King Dad'll have better luck…" said Lemmy. "He _is_ a lot more powerful than us, so even if his powers are lessened, it won't make as much of a difference as it did for you guys."

"Nope. You're wrong – he's gonna go down as hard as we did," said Roy, shaking his head. "Dat's why Kammy sent me out here – we're gearing up ta leave. As soon as Luigi trashes Pops, we're flying da castle back 'trough da portal. All da Koopa Troopas have been recalled: everyone's inside but us."

"So it's all over? All that work for nothing?" said Larry, who had been building snowmen off to the side and quietly listening to the conversation.

"Psh, like anyone expected this cockamamie plan to _actually_ work," laughed Wendy bitterly. "Melting Antarctica with _hairdryers_? What was Daddy _thinking_? He deserves to lose."

"How can you say that?" gasped Lemmy.

"I'm sorry to say, but she has a point," sighed Ludwig. "Zee whole point of trying to take over Earsz vas because he figured Mario vouldn't get involved, vitch, in itself, vas a flawed szeory. Mario helps _everyvone_ vee go up against, and Fazzer should have known a plot zis contrived vould leak to zee Mushroomians."

"Yeah, but he managed to capture Mario, at least," said Lemmy. He hadn't been part of the fighting this time around, but he hated to see his father's plans picked apart by his fellow Koopalings.

"We should've tried baiting him with drugged candy a long time ago," grinned Larry. Sedating Mario had been Larry's idea, and Iggy had whipped up the potion.

"Yeah, but King Dad should've known to capture Luigi and Yoshi as well," said Iggy. "I made enough tranquilizer for a whole _army_ of Mushroom Kingdom creeps."

"Like Daddy could've tricked them _all_ into eating it – the only reason Mario fell for the trap is because he's a fat old pig," sneered Wendy.

"Okay fine," moaned Lemmy. "So it wasn't the best plan in the world-"

"More like the _worst_," snorted Wendy. "Even if Mario, Luigi and freaking Yoshi hadn't come running after us, why didn't he just take over this world like he tries to take over ours?"

"Actually, Pop has some valid reasons fo' dat," said Roy. "For one 'ting, it'd be too hard ta bring an invasion force large enough ta take over dis world 'trough da portal. It's like Warp Pipe warfare – small groups only. Or in dis case, one castle filled wid troops only."

"Nicely put," said Iggy sarcastically. Roy growled: he hated grammar snobs.

"Why can't we bring a bunch of troops through warp fields, again?" asked Morton. "I mean, I know regular Warp Pipes are sorta small and it'd be hard to cram an army through one, but if we could fit one castle through the portal, why not a bunch of them?"

"It puts too much strain on da inner workins o' da portals if ya bring lotsa stuff 'trough," said Roy, who was an expert in all things tactical. "I dunno exactly _why_ dough – you'd need ta ask Iggy about da sciency details."

"Uhhh… You'd have better luck asking Kamek, actually," said Iggy sheepishly as Morton turned to him expectantly. "He's an expert on Warp Pipes and everything else even remotely related to them. He was even the one who figured out how to convert the warp fields for interdimensional travel based on the readings he took from whole Flip-Flop Incident. I asked him to explain it all once, and it gave me a major headache."

"Aww, poor you," jeered Wendy.

"Let's get back on-topic, shall vee?" cut-in Ludwig, rolling his eyes.

Roy nodded. "Da portal problem is besides da point, really: even if we got da troops 'trough, engaging da humans would be a bad idea. Da Koopa Troopas we dispatched have gotten some good looks at deir technology, and it's way beyond anyting we've got. Tink of it: Lakitus versus supersonic jets; airships versus ballistic missile submarines; bullet-bills versus _nuclear bombs_. Face it, we'd be screwed."

"That's why were hiding down here in Antarctica – where no one will look for us," grinned Morton.

"Except the spy satellites," muttered Larry, eyeing the clear blue sky mistrustfully. None of the other Koopaling heard him, however, as Morton had spun off on another rambling rant about the territorial divisions of Antarctica, and how their location (east of the northern reaches of the Pensacola Mountains), was an ideal location – far from any Antarctic human bases (or any coastal-dwelling penguins).

"Actually, zat's anuzzer sing zat's been bozzering me about zis plan," said Ludwig after a moment, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"What is?" asked Morton, abruptly ending his speech.

"Vell, if vee're in Antarctica to _hide_, sending our forces out to steal prominent landmarks is razzer counter-productive, dontcha sink?"

"Dey're not bringing da loot back, so da humans shouldn't tink ta look down here," said Roy with a shrug.

"Sure, until vee start melting zee ice: zen zey'll ice _us_."

"It'll take a while before the ecological effects start taking place," said Iggy. "Maybe King Dad figured we could get a strong enough hold down here to weather a human attack by the time they find us."

"And yet he hasn't brought any more forces srough. Zee portal could transport a shipload of soldiers a day, at zee very least, but vee are still vizzout backup."

"Maybe he realized the plan's a dud," suggested Iggy. "Like what Roy was saying about how we'd get thrashed no matter how much backup we had. Not to mention the fact that the whole melting-the-ice-with-hairdryers plan wouldn't work anyway. The logistics just don't support it."

"Maybe dat explains why he didn't even _try_ ta sell da treasures befo' Luigi took 'em back: he knew it was useless," said Roy.

"They don't even _ship_ hairdryers to Antarctica," added Wendy.

"You what King Dad _should've_ done if he wanted to melt this place?" chirped Morton. "He should've brought some dragons through the portal instead of a castle. Like those three Rogueport-area dragons, the 'Tails. They got Bonetail out of the Pit of 100 Trials, ya know, and the three have been wandering around causing havoc in lotsa little Mushroomian towns. They're always being hounded by the authorities, so if we offered them a safe haven. They'd totally take it and-"

"Or he could've used spells or potions," interrupted Ludwig. "But no, he vent vit unfeasible, unobtainable human technology. Most of us suspected zee plan vas folly before vee even set out, and vonce vee got a good look at vat vee vere up against…" Ludwig trailed off: he was preaching to the choir – everyone knew the plan was doomed long ago.

Roy nodded his agreement. "We shoulda left days ago, instead of waiting fo' Luigi ta complete his little quest."

"Maybe Luigi's just an excuse," said Lemmy. "You know how much King Dad hates looking stupid – even if he knew his plan was a failure, he wouldn't want to go home and admit that."

"Especially after all the trouble Kamek and the other researchers went through to create a working interdimensional portal," said Iggy, nodding.

"But if we go home after Luigi's been through with us, King Dad doesn't have to admit his plan couldn't have worked even if the Mario Bros. _hadn't_ shown up," finished Lemmy, grinning.

"Yeah, King Dad loses to them all the time, so it'd be no less embarrassing than all his other defeats. Except for the wasted technology stuff Iggy mentioned. And the fact that it's _Luigi_ – well, Luigi and Yoshi – but that's sorta a stupid reason for it to be more embarrassing. Luigi's not as brave as Mario, true, but he's still a skilled fighter and an accomplished 'hero' and he's part of a good half of Mario's adventures and massacres and whatnot. Anyway, losing to him shouldn't be shameful. Why, the fact we captured Mario at all is a huge achievement, and I wouldn't be surprised if King Dad brags about that when we get home to offset the discontented mutterings within the populace that will surely-"

"Ugh, be _quiet_ already," sighed Wendy.

"Like that ever works," smirked Iggy.

Morton scowled, but he knew making a verbal retort would be pointless, and so remained silent.

After a moment, Larry spoke up. "Umm… Shouldn't we go inside…?"

Roy slapped his forehead. "I totally fo'got about dat!"

"You suck as an errand-boy, Roy," grinned Wendy, stretching as she sat up on her chair.

"Heh, that rhymed," chuckled Morton to himself.

"I ain't no errand-boy," snarled Roy, smiling cheekily. "So I'm _glad_ I'm bad at it."

"That's nice," said Wendy. "Hey, wouldja mind carrying my chair back for me? I just did my nails."

The smile disappeared from Roy's face. "I say again: _I ain't no errand-boy_. Besides, I'm still aching from my fight wid Luigi."

"All right," sighed Wendy. "Howabout you, Ludwig? …Ludwig?"

The eldest Koopaling didn't hear Wendy's request – he was deeply absorbed in thought. He stared blindly at a spot in the snow, mulling over every detail of Bowser's plot, and everything else that could possibly mean something. The plot would never have worked: even Bowser would've known that before setting out. It was a lot of trouble just to try and get away from the Mario Bros.' meddling, but if that was the case, the events should have been kept _secret_. It was a big operation to say the least, but if the Koopa Kingdom wanted to keep something from the Mushroomians, they could, no matter how humoungous it may be. No, someone let something slip on purpose, but who? And why?

Maybe Junior? He wasn't too happy about being left out of the mission. Bowser said it was because Junior had been at his side for most of the things he had done as of late, and that it was his siblings' turn. That much was true – Roy, Iggy and many of the others were getting frustrated with their little glory-hog of a brother – but there was a _reason_ Bowser hadn't let the older Koopalings fight…

Ludwig's eyes widened as it dawned on him. Without even turning around to face his siblings, he whispered a single word: "_Muzzer_."

"What?" frowned Wendy, having barely heard the revelation.

Ludwig turned to face his sister; the other Koopalings were a few steps beyond her and hadn't heard anything at all. All were peering at their eldest brother expectantly. Ludwig smiled wryly, "I said-"

_BOOM_!

The Koopalings all jumped as an explosion from the castle echoed across the snowfields. They turned just in time to see a dark shape fly out of the fortress and soar though the air – directly towards them.

"It's gonna hit us!" cried Iggy in alarm, dropping his folded lawn-chair and umbrella. The Koopalings all started running in every which way, screaming and pointing as the object got closer and closer, and ploughed into the ground a few paces away from the young Dragon-Koopas.

As the snow settled, the children gasped: the projectile had been Bowser, who was now flash-frozen into a block of ice.

"King Dad!"

"What the hell?"

"What happened?"

"The cannon!"

"Oh Koopa!"

"That bastard human!"

The Koopalings rushed forward, chattering as much as Morton (except Larry, who was as silent as ever). But before they could reach their father, the ominous sound of cracking ice filled the air. Jagged fractures were appearing in the ice, destabilizing the solid block.

"Shit!" hissed Iggy.

"What?" demanded Wendy.

"If King Dad's frozen all the way through, and that ice cube starts to shear, it could splinter _him_ into pieces as well."

"What?" repeated Wendy. "That's ridiculous."

"Maybe not," said Ludwig, all thoughts of his mother (and the conspiracy of his father's latest plot) banished from his mind by the matter at hand. "Dragon blood's funny like zat – it can burn and it can freeze – and zus, freeze zee entire person solid. Fazzer's a Near-Immortal so zat vouldn't kill him-"

"But if his shell's cracked, all bets are off," said Iggy rapidly, jutting out his hand. "Look!"

Once of the chunks of ice surrounding Bowser's shell had shifted, and while the Koopalings couldn't perceive the damage it had done to the shell directly, they could see a trickle of liquid light escaping into the Antarctic air.

"Oh, Koopa, we're too late!" gasped Wendy.

"It's just like when he fell outta the window!" cried Morton, excitement filtering through the horror. "Y'know, last month, when Mario-"

"He needs Healing Potion," said Ludwig, cutting across his brother. "Lemmy, you're zee fastest at crossing zee snow, go find Kammy!"

"Me?" gasped Lemmy, staring at Ludwig in horror. "But I-"

"Go you idiot!" squealed Wendy, who was hopping from foot to foot and biting her nails as she stared up at Bowser's frozen and fractured face.

Snapping out of his hesitation, Lemmy took off, not even turning around, instead running forward to move his ball (rather than having to backpedal his legs to roll forward, like usual) – it was faster that way. Swiveling his helpfully long, mutated neck, Lemmy peered over his shoulder and saw Koopa Troopas pouring out of the castle in confusion. "King Dad's up there!" he bellowed as he neared the door, pointing in the direction he had come from. He could see flashes of fire amongst the hilltop figures that were his family, but he didn't pause to wonder what his siblings were up to as he plunged through the door – helpfully held open by some of the Koopas.

"Kammy!" wailed Lemmy bouncing up the stairs. "Where's Kammy? I need Kammy! Help! Kammy!"

"What do you mean he's been fired out of a canon? Why am I only hearing about this _now_!" the old witch's voice was coming from Bowser's room. Lemmy burst through the door, finding Kammy surrounded by a swarm of confused Koopas.

"Kammy! Help! King Dad is-" Lemmy was cut off as Kammy's broom handle scooped him off his ball. She already had her broomstick out, and the second she saw Lemmy's face, she knew why he was looking for her.

Kammy snaked through the air over the swarming Koopas and blasted open the door. Lemmy held on to the broom for dear life, relaying his information about Bowser to Kammy at the top of his lungs. They soared out into the open air and headed straight for Bowser. A hoard of Koopas were now helping to hold the lower pieces of ice steady as the Koopalings melted part of the ice, exposing the back of Bowser's shell, where the energy was spilling into the sky.

"Brilliant!" cried Kammy in relief as she swooped overhead and stopped right above the melted portion, the flask of golden-green Healing Potion already in her hands. She poured it directly onto Bowser's shell, and the evaporation of his energy immediately ceased.

-x-

It had all happened so fast. Luigi had reached Mario, and Bowser had come to stop him. Then the green plumber pulled a switch and Bowser had dropped into a cannon, which promptly fired him out of the castle. The air was blistering as Bowser tumbled through the sky; he had been blasted out of cannons before, but the ending was unlike anything he had experienced. For an instant it was freezing cold – so cold, Bowser imagined his blood must have frozen because he couldn't even move. And then white hot pain, like burning swords were slicing through Bowser's body – from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, and everywhere in between.

And then blackness.

Then, slowly, Bowser could see things in the dark. Circular walls caked in slime and arching over a river of sludge filled with all matter of disgusting, floating lumps. There were thin strips of flat ground on either side of the liquid; these were covered in festering waste as well, upon which scampering Earth rats were feasting. He could hear dripping water, the rumbling of distant subways, and the murmur of the streets above the manholes. Bowser floated above it all; he had no body, and yet he still experienced the sights, sounds and, unfortunately, smells of the sewers like he was really there.

Bowser didn't know where he was or why he was there – moments earlier he had been in Antarctica, so did he go through a portal? But then where was his body? The last time his consciousness slipped away, he took a walk through memory lane, not a float through a putrid human sewer he knew for a fact he had never visited in real life. He drifted through the noxious air like a ghost, unable to direct his movement. He could feel heat now, and hear muffled voices, though he knew they weren't coming from the sewers, but from reality. He could feel the burning pain, the trickling blood, and yet he was still not in his body, but wafting through one of the walls – a wall not like the others.

He was in a passage, and there was a golden light shining around the next bend. Bowser could feel his heart beating, bright light was filtering into his consciousness, but suddenly, he realized he couldn't leave now – or return – or whatever was happening to him. Blinking against the suffocating white light, Bowser strained, willing himself around the corner, but going no faster.

"_Bowser_"

_No_, thought Bowser as a disembodied voiced called him back. _Not yet – I have to see_.

"_Bowser!_"

_No_.

"Bowser!"

"No!" the Koopa King jerked upright, nearly smashing face-first into Kammy, who had been bending over him, pulling his wandering mind back with an ancient incantation.

"Your Aliveness! We were so worried!" Kammy beamed at her king, as did the Koopalings, who clambered forward, chattering and grabbing at Bowser. He felt their claws, and heard their voices, and smelt the blood clinging to his scales. But that was nothing compared to the image burned into his mind as he rounded that corner. The sight of a bed of gold and diamonds piled upon the grimy ground. And on top of the treasure lay Bowser's treasure: a dirty, dark green spiked shell; a long, green-scaled tail curled around the muscular limbs pulled tight; and over the hunched shoulders of the sleeping dragon, a mass of blue hair, its broken tips betraying hints of purple.

Bowser saw her, and he felt her, and he knew he wasn't hallucinating.

- Koopa Castle, Dark Land, Mushroom World -

"He _what_?"

"He saw Bowselta."

Kamek snorted. "He _imagined_ her, you mean."

"He was _sure_ the vision was real," said Kammy, walking right up to Kamek as he bent over his book.

"His Highness is sure of a _lot_ of things," said Kamek, turning the page.

"This is different!" Kammy reached forward, grabbed the front cover of the book and slammed it closed on Kamek's finger.

"Ow," frowned Kamek, pulling out his damaged digit.

"You weren't listening," said Kammy, as if that was justification enough for her action.

"There's no _point_ listening," said Kamek, turning around to face his twin sister. "You're a fool if you believe Bowser. You want him to be happy so badly you're willing to go along with _anything_."

"It's _not_ just _anything_. His Fracturedness's energy was released from his body, and it sought out its other half. Mated pairs' energy is combined, remember? It make perfect sense that-"

"No it _doesn't_," said Kamek rolling his eyes behind his glasses exasperatedly. "All that's just romantic dribble – post-copulatory combined energy signatures only differ less than three percent from their original patterns, and-"

"He saw her," insisted Kammy. "And he's going back to get her."

Kamek laughed. "You're both mad! You just barely rescued all the Koopas and collected all the crap left behind from this little outing, and you wanna go back!" Kamek growled. "This is what I get for staying behind…"

Kammy smirked, Kamek had decided the mission was doomed the moment it had reached his internal ears, and he had refused to tag along with the others to Earth. "Bowser was fine with you staying behind to watch Junior the first time, but this time, you're not wiggling out of it. The Koopalings are all staying behind with me, and _you_'re going with Bowser."

"This is mental," snorted Kamek. "The second time around is going to be no different than the first. Bowselta is gone, and you guys should just accept that!" Kamek whirled around and reopened his book. As he thumbed through the pages looking for the passage he had been reading, he continued to mutter angrily. "I don't know what you idiots are thinking … You're gonna get us all killed … I knew the plan would never work from the beginning, and-"

"You 'knew', huh?" said Kammy, crossing her arms. "If you were so confident we were gonna fail, why'd you leak information to that Goomba spy?"

Kamek froze. "How could you say such a thing?" He bluffed.

"Don't lie to me, Kamek," said Kammy coolly. "You may think His Lovelornness and I are blinded by our desire to see Bowselta again, but your hatred towards her has clouded your mind just as much."

Kamek slammed the book shut and advanced on his sister until they were beak-to-beak. Kammy sneered smugly as Kamek's lips pursed into a thin smile. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said at last, stepping back from his unamused twin. "Honest."

Before the old witch could respond to her brother's gall, the door to Kamek's study was flung open by the Koopa King. "Kammy? What are you doing here? Did you tell him about Bowselta?"

"I'm afraid so, Your Disappointedness," said Kammy, ripping her eyes from Kamek and smiling apologetically up at Bowser. "You see, I brought Kamek the data we collected when we came back through the portal, and I just couldn't help myself."

"Way to steal my thunder," huffed Bowser, but he soon brightened up. "However, I still have news for you _both_!"

"Oh? What's that, Your Surprisingness?" asked Kammy.

_Kissass_, thought Kamek.

"The only reason our first plan failed was because we didn't have enough time to search Earth before Luigi defeated all our spies, saved Mario, and-"

"And launched you out of a cannon," finished Kamek, struggling to suppress his smirk.

Bowser scowled. "Jeeze Kammy, didja have to tell him _everything_?"

"Sorry, Your Embarrassedness, but he was going to find out sooner or later, so I thought I'd be the bearer of bad news."

"I'm not embarrassed," lied Bowser. "But that's beside the point. My point is: we need more time to search for Bowselta, and what better way could there possibly be than to use time itself!"

"I'm not following," frowned Kamek.

"Yes, the grammar was a bit hard to follow, Your Unintelligibleness," winced Kammy.

"What do you mean? My plan's totally intelligent," said Bowser, having misheard Kammy's critical title. "Instead of sending the Mario Bros. out after our spies, we're gonna send him back in time!"

The Magikoopas blinked at their king incredulously. "I liked the plan better when it _didn't_ make sense," said Kamek, adding in his head, _grammatically or otherwise_.

Bowser frowned. "You just don't understand it yet. I have it all planned out: instead of taking a castle, we'll take a doomship equipped with the Timulator-"

"What?" gasped Kamek; he was very protective of his time machine.

"Save your questions until the end of my presentation, please," said Bowser patronizingly, holding out a silencing hand.

Kamek growled, "what are we, in grade school?"

"If we were, you'd get a detention for all this lip," joked Kammy.

"Ha! So true!" grinned Bowser. He then continued with his plan. "So as I was saying, our cover-story this time will be that I want to make the Mushroom World's greatest museum, and to do it, I'm gonna steal exclusive artifacts from throughout the Earth humans' history."

"That's nuts," said Kamek.

"But you gotta admit, an Earth museum would certainly stand out in the Mushroom World. Humans everywhere would flock to see where they came from," said Kammy.

"My thoughts exactly," said Bowser brightly. "We can send Koopas back in time to get the goods as we fly around looking for Bowselta."

"And when Mario comes knocking? What happens then?" demanded Kamek.

"Didn't I say you should save your questions until the-"

"He'll destroy the doomship and leave us all stranded in the human world. _Or worse_," continued Kamek, too frustrated to care about what Bowser would do to him for his insolence.

"That's why we'll trick him into thinking all the artifacts are actually being stored in my castle – so he _won't_ try to crash the ship. Though I doubt he would anyway, since he'd need the Timulator to return all the artifacts first."

"This scheme is even worse than the Antarctica one!" exclaimed Kamek. "When word gets out about this plan, everyone's gonna think you've lost your mind!"

"Unless, of course, _this_ plan stays secret," said Kammy, shooting Kamek a scathing look. Fortunately, as her eyes were hidden behind her glasses, Bowser didn't see that.

"Actually, I'd _rather_ that Mario hears about this plot," said the Koopa King. "Now that he knows we can get to Earth, you can bet the Mushroomian spies are gonna be keeping tabs on what we're doing, and I'd rather Mario fall for our trick than to just attack all willy-nilly and screw everything up."

"Why don't you just tell him the truth?" beseeched Kammy. "If he knows you're not _really_ trying to do anything sinister, he'll probably leave you be."

"No way in _hell_," growled Bowser.

Kammy sighed. _Why are men so damn proud?_

Kamek growled recklessly. "Yeah? Well there's no way in hell _I'm_ letting you use my Timulator to go screwing around with human history just so you can chase hallucinations!"

"'_Hallucinations_'?" hissed Bowser.

Kamek paled, realizing he had gone too far.

"I saw her, Kamek," said the Koopa King, angry steam curling our from between his lips and nostrils as he towered over his Chief Advisors, one of which was slowly inching away from her twin brother. "I saw her and I am going to find her, and you are going to help me, or I am going to roast you alive and feed you to the Chain-Chomps. Understand?"

Kamek and Bowser were both glaring daggers at once-another, but before long, Kamek gave a jerky nod. "Fine," he spat. "I'll get the Timulator out of storage first thing tomorrow."

Bowser smiled. "Good." Then he opened his mouth wide and engulfed Kamek in a massive flare. Even if they eventually came around, no one challenged the King of the Koopas. Period.

-xxxxx-

As predicted, Mario and Yoshi (sans the mentally exhausted Luigi) turned up at Koopa Castle soon after the second plan had been put in motion. This time it was Yoshi who jumped the gun and got himself captured, which was an unforeseen bonus for the Koopas. Bowser managed to convince Mario that he had to return all the artifacts before he could save Yoshi, since the entire course of history could change if he failed in _that_ quest. Bowser was lying through his teeth, of course, but Mario didn't know that.

It was a clever plan, actually: since all the artifacts made it through Earth's timeline intact, Bowser knew his purloining of the various knick-knacks could not be permanent. History told him that the artifacts were restored before long, so he knew Mario would take the bait and spend his time returning them – that's how it happened in the past, so the present must flow in a way that would facilitate those events.

Or at least, that's how Kammy, Kamek, Ludwig and Iggy explained it; Bowser wasn't an expert on the why and how – all he knew was that the past was immutable. He learned that the hard way when he first used the Timulator. (Which he had commissioned Kamek to develop after being inspired by Professor E. Gadd's failed time machine.) With the Timulator, Bowser had gone back to the time that he and the Mario Bros. were infants in an attempt to capture the fabled Star Kids and use their power to rule the world, only to be humiliatingly defeated by some Yoshis and a handful of babies. The experience told Bowser that mucking about in the past was nothing more than a waste of time – which, as he had explained to his Magikoopa advisors, was exactly what he needed.

So, while Mario was ping-ponging through the ages, Bowser was scouring the globe in a cloaked airship, purportedly to search museums for new artifacts he could steal from the past in order to replace the ones Mario had returned. In reality, the sensor banks lining the control room were doing nothing but scanning for Bowselta, and since Bowser and Kamek were the only ones allowed in the control room, no one was the wiser. And, to make sure the soldiers didn't grow suspicious of the restricted bridge access (which was unlike regular doomship policy), Kamek told everyone it was to ensure no one inadvertently tampered with the Timulator housed beyond the retractable wall at the back of the bridge. Fortunately, most members of the Koopa Troop were complacent with their lot in life, and didn't bother asking questions. So, when one of the Koopa Troopa guards, by name of Johnson, flicked on his personal radio in one night and discovered that the doomship was broadcasting special Koopan radio signals as well as its passive sensors, he just shrugged and changed channels to a human easy-listening station.

Kamek, however, wasn't so mellow. He hated the plan; all the cities they visited were state-of-the-art metropolises, like Paris, Tokyo, London and Toronto, and he was sure something would see through the doomship's shielding. He was also worried that something would pick up on their radio broadcast, but Bowser was adamant about keeping it on – and at full-power no less. The Koopa King was pretty sure he saw a radio in his "dream", and hoped Bowselta would hear the call and come to the surface, where the sensors were sure to pick her up (whereas, if she remained in her sewers, her energy signal might be masked by the ground above her). Not to mention the fact that any satellite in polar orbit could have easily snapped a photo of the Antarctic castle during the first, failed plan; the Koopas were down there for a week, which was more than enough time for the humans to see them. Bowser, Kammy and everyone else (except paranoid little Larry) had waved off his concerns, but Kamek knew he was right. Somehow, he knew the Koopas had made a grievous error when they activated that interdimensional portal. And one day, he knew everyone would be sorry they didn't listen to him.

- New York City, Earth -

Behind a fake wall in the sewers of New York City, Bowselta Koopa was counting her money. She figured she had finally amassed enough stolen riches to buy a Russian submarine sturdy enough to carry her through the portal that had sucked her into the human world nearly three years previously. She had been gradually selling her wares in shady, underground venues, where a trench coat, a scarf and a mask helped to conceal her draconian identity. Humans were used to dealing with secretive merchants, and so Bowselta was never hassled for her towering stature or her bulky figure during her transactions. But she never tried pushing it, and hadn't seen the light of day in months.

As she counted, she listened to her radio, making sure to play it so quietly the sound would not reach the rest of the sewers. Periodically, she'd scan through the waves, just in case she was in luck and a normally inaccessible channel managed to filter down into her subterranean hideaway. She had just past $10,000 when she decided to scan again, and then she heard it.

At first she was sure she was imagining it, and continued twisting the radio's dial, but the unmistakably Koopan signal just resonated louder and louder from the radio. Bowselta looked back over her shoulder at the end of her "room", where, mere days ago, she had woken up to see, or rather, _feel_ Bowser's silvery silhouette, dispersing into the air. She thought she had imagined that too, but something in her gut told her it had been real, and though she felt foolish, she used that as justification for speeding up her illegal transactions. She had even picked out a _Paltus_-class submarine that insiders told her was on the market. She would be able to leave in a matter of months, if not weeks, but now, as the signal filled her internal ears, Bowselta knew rescue was closer at hand than she had ever dreamed it would be.

She seized the radio (which was battery-operated, like all of Bowselta's appliances), clicked off her desk light, and dashed for the exit. Carefully closing the wall behind her, she adjusted the radio's antenna to determine which way the signal was coming from. She then cranked the volume up to max (the signal had magical properties and could only be heard by Koopas and a few other select Mushroomian species, but not by Earth humans, so she had nothing to fear). Bowselta followed the sewers left and right, until they had led her all the way to Central Park. She grabbed hold of the nearest ladder and started up towards the manhole leading to salvation. She tried carrying the radio, but as she reached up towards the manhole cover, she was too exited to care anymore, and let it slip from her grime-smeared shoulder. A burst of electrical sparks illuminated the sewer as the radio hit the wastewater, and before the light had died, Bowselta threw open the cast-iron cover.

-x-

Onboard the doomship, Bowser's latest plan had come to a fiery end. It seems a few of the artifacts he had taken weren't actually key to Earth history, such as one of William Shakespeare's many pens, or a random prehistoric egg, and Mario had chosen to skip them. This resulted in him busting in on Bowser's control room a few hours ahead of schedule, and catching the Koopas off-guard. Mario seemed unfazed by the fact that they were in an airship instead of a castle, and wasted no time in engaging Bowser in their latest pitched battle. Their attacks damaged the ship more than each other, and soon systems were failing all over the vessel as fireballs struck key control panels and conduits.

"Your Highness, energy is at 53% and falling!" reported Kamek.

"I don't care!" bellowed Bowser, avoiding Mario's latest jump attack. "Why don't you make yourself _useful_ and HELP ME?"

He had a point, but another alarm drew the Magikoopa's attention. "_Shit_... We just lost the cloaking field!"

-x-

Bowselta's eyes widened as she caught sight of the doomship hovering just beyond a nearby stand of trees. She pulled herself out of the hole and ran through the underbrush of Central Park as fast as she could.

-x-

As Kamek frantically tried to turn the doomship invisible again – before Special Forces rained down upon them from the sky – another panel beeped. Kamek glanced out of it uninterestedly, but then did a double-take as he realized it was the sensor reporting a familiar energy signal below the airship. "No," he hissed, whirling around in horror to see if Bowser had seen it too. The sensor was connected right to the king's throne, where a light was now flashing. But Bowser was in no fit state to notice anything, as he now lay in a heap, with a victorious Mario standing over him.

"NO!" repeated Kamek, this time flying across the room to his master's aid with a particularly handy levitation spell he had leaned recently. But it was no use, and Mario quickly batted away the Magikoopa with a barrage of fireballs. Bowser let out a belch of flame at the distracted plumber, but Mario nimbly dodged it and brought his foot down hard on Bowser's face.

-x-

Bowselta reached the clearing in no time flat, leaping up onto a nearby rocky outcropping and stared up at the doomship, wondering how she could possibly get their attention. She considered shooting at it with her firebreath, or maybe simply shouting, but she never got a chance to do either.

"Holy Jesus!" came an exclamation to Bowselta's right. Her attention snapped to the far side of the rocky outcropping, and as she caught sight of the terrified policeman, she cursed herself for not checking to make sure the coast was clear. "Shit!" cried the human as he met her flashing red eyes. Bowselta jumped the second she realized he was pulling out his gun, but she was too late. The explosion echoed in the air, and Bowselta fell to the ground.

-x-

The energy censors went quiet just as Bowser was getting back to his feet. With a gasp he fell back to his knees, an inexplicable coldness filling every inch of his body.

"Your Highness!" Kamek jumped to the Koopa King's side, ignoring Mario, who had just freed Yoshi with a key he had lifted from Bowser.

"She's gone…" he whispered, his eyes wide in horror. "I felt her again, and now she's gone!"

Kamek opened his mouth, and turned towards the silent sensor, only to see the wall separating the Timulator and the bridge reduced to rubble by Mario. "No! Stop!" cried Kamek, heading after them. Mario and Yoshi disappeared, having transported themselves to Antarctica using the time (and teleportation) machine, undoubtedly planning to use the Koopa's portal (which was still there, under guard) to return to the Mushroom World. However, the rubble from the wall had damaged to Timulator, and using it had only made it worse.

"It's malfunctioning!" screamed Kamek, grabbing his wand and trying to shut the machine off as it prepared to engage again – and send the entire airship back to the Cretaceous.

"Who cares?" moaned Bowser, still slumped on the ground. "She's gone…"

"Ahhh! No! Stop, stop, stop!" wailed Kamek, practically beating the Timulator in desperation as it engulfed the entire doomship in electricity and sucked it away.

-x-

"…No I am not kidding, I just shot a real-life Goddammed _alien_! … No! No, listen to me! There's a flying ship here too, and it-" The policeman gasped as the airship above him was surrounded in blue sparks, glowed a brilliant white and then disappeared. His mouth still hanging open, he clicked on his radio again. "Base, this is Griggs – the alien ship just disappeared. I repeat, disappeared! … What? No, no I am not making this up. Haven't you heard from Jones yet? … Goddammit, that man takes far too long to go to the washroom! Wha- yeah… Yeah… No, _no_! I'm _serious_! I am looking at the alien right now!"

Griggs had finally cleared the rocks and was staring down at his quarry, his gun in one hand, the radio in the other. The "alien" lay in a crumpled pile on the ground before him, blood pouring out of the bullet hole in its leg. It didn't seem to be moving, or even breathing, so Griggs slowly walked towards it. Describing everything he could see in the dim lighting through the radio. He was still a newcomer to the New York Police Department, and he really hoped his partner, Jones, would hurry up and get off the toilet and come verify that there was a real live – or dead – alien in Central Park.

"I- No… Look, can you put Chief on the line? I wanna talk to Ch-" Griggs was cut off with a scream as Bowselta lashed out with her tail and knocked the human's legs out from under him. He hit the ground, his radio spinning out of his hand as he gripped at his gun and tried to take aim, but Bowselta was prepared this time. She grabbed both his wrists with her left hand, and pushed his arms away from her head; the bullets fired off into the night as she seized Griggs' skull with her other hand and twisted. She heard his neck snap like a toothpick and Griggs' body went numb, the gun falling from his hands. If there was one thing the Queen of the Koopas liked about unmagical Earth humans, it was that they died easily.

Bowselta pushed her body off of the ground, wincing as a new wave of pain shot through her leg. Her entire body had gone cold and all her powers seemed to be locked in, and she knew it was because of the bullet lodged within her flesh. Holding her breath, she dug her claws into the wound, burrowing deeper into the muscle until she felt them hit metal. She seized the bullet with the tips of her talons, and pulled it out. Immediately, warmth spread through her body, and she threw the bullet away without a second glance. She spat on her hand and smeared the saliva over the wound to act as a temporary bandage, before shakily getting to her feet.

She set Griggs' body aflame to dispose of the evidence. As she limped away, she used her firebreath to ignite the puddle of her own blood too, and even fired the stuff still clinging to her so that it didn't leave a trail. But for some reason, it seemed the bullet hole was still bleeding, and despite the flames, her leg was still cold. Bowselta could hear approaching sirens, though, and so she simply pulled out a piece of cloth from her hammerspace and pressed it to her wound as she ran back through the trees. Miraculously, she met no one else on her way back, and disappeared back into the sewers without incident.

Not willing to leave footprints on the walkway, in case the cops decided to search the sewers, Bowselta jumped into the wastewater, wincing at the thought of the mire seeping into her wound. She was just glad Dragon-Koopas were immune to most infectious diseases as she slogged her way back to her room. Once inside, she turned on her light and gasped as she saw that the blood oozing from her wound and staining her cloth wasn't coppery, but pitch black. Even after clearing out the sewage that had swirled into the hole, the wound was still black, and the skin around it even looked grayish.

Bowselta paled and sat back against the wall. She could hardly believe that fifteen minutes earlier she had left her room on her way to rescue, only to have it all ripped away. And her health with it: when Dragon-Koopas died in battle, their spilt blood stained everything it touched black – the Mark of the Dead. Bowselta pulled out her sword; it was stained from beheading Bowser's great-grandfather, and now she bore a similar mark. She thought back to the legendary black magic of the human weaponry – energy from another realm, toxic to the residents of the Mushroom World.

Bowselta frowned and sucked her sword back into her hammerspace, shaking those thoughts from her head. She wouldn't give in – not without a fight. If anything, this encounter showed her that her situation _wasn't_ hopeless. Bowser had come to Earth to rescue her; he had come so close, and while Bowselta didn't know why the doomship disappeared, she knew he would come back. He hadn't give up on her in three years, and he wouldn't now.

-xxxxx-

Or so Bowselta thought, but she was wrong. The bullet had cancelled out her energy for only a moment, but it was that moment that Bowser felt, and he was convinced she was dead for it. Once Kamek fixed the Timulator and brought them all back to the present, Bowser sailed straight to Antarctica and returned to the Mushroom World, closing the artificial portal behind him forever. He destroyed any research that could possibly be used to form another interdimensional bridge with the human world, and despite Kamek's desperate pleas, he threw the technology into the nearest open lava pool.

But that wasn't enough for Bowser and his fiery, broken heart. The Koopa King took his anger out on the universe itself. He drew up a plot to destroy the cruel reality that had taken Bowselta away, and create his own galaxy in its place. But as always, he failed. Mario defeated him, and before Bowser could build up the strength or the resolve to hatch another plan, Bowselta returned.

After a couple weeks of waiting, Bowselta had realized Bowser wasn't coming back and returned to her original Russian submarine plan. Her wound had healed by then, leaving a black scar in its place. Over the years, many wondered about the origins of the mark, but Bowselta refused to tell anyone. She knew if Bowser found out she had been shot trying to contact him, he would never forgive himself, so she denied ever knowing the doomship had been to Earth. Eventually, Bowser stopped bringing up the whole thing too, as he was so ashamed of the fact she _had_ been there and he _had_ been right, but had foolishly given up so easily and turned his back on the human world.

The Koopas moved on, acting as if their respective times on Earth never happened. But they did happen, and the rest is history.


	2. To Marry in May

**A/N: I just want to explain about my inclusion of **_**Mario is Missing!**_** and **_**Mario's Time Machine**_** in the last chapter: at first their Earth setting posed quite a problem for me and I was originally going to leave them out, but then I realized I could fit them in quite cleverly… At least, until I actually did some hard research on the eve of writing the prologue. Both games had three versions made: one each for the NES, SNES and for home computers. Each version differed slightly from the other two, and for my story, I went with the version with the most plot: the computer version of **_**Mario is Missing!**_**, and the NES version of **_**Mario's Time Machine**_**. Actual plot details can be found on the Super Mario Wiki (just Google the name of the game and click on the **www. mariowiki. com **hit). I know I still changed a lot of things about these games for the story, especially for the latter because I planned the prologue in 2008, but only learned of the **_**MTM**_** plot details in 2009, and I didn't feel like rethinking my epic series of unfortunate events.**

**Anyway, from this chapter onwards, the story moves into the present. And by "present" I mean 2003. Unfortunately, since the Koopalings are all grown up, there's a lot of description in the first part of the chapter (I tried to limit it to one paragraph per Koopaling). To subsidize the text, I uploaded a picture of the grown Koopalings at **ht tp: / / pics. livejournal. com/walkazo/pic/000204ab/g1** (just remove all the spaces), for your viewing pleasure. I know I've thrown in a couple left-field portrayals (particularly Lemmy) and ignored their new looks in **_**New Super Mario Bros. Wii**_**, but I couldn't bring myself to re-imagine the characters after all these years, so please bear with me.**

**Now, before I **_**finally**_** begin, I just wanna disclaim a few inspirations and sources behind the adult Koopalings. For one thing, Iggy's hair is inspired by that of Seamus Harper from **_**Andromeda**_** (the series that started me out on fanfiction writing). Secondly, I mention a condition known as "Lilyfoot"; in my story it's a genetic bone deformity, but in real life "Lily Feet" or "Lotus Feet" are the result of the ancient Chinese tradition of foot binding. Another medical condition I've referenced is "Koopfelter's Syndrome", which is based on the real life "Klinefelter's syndrome", given to males who have an extra sex chromosome (XXY instead of the normal XY). I you wanna know more about these conditions, look them up on Wikipedia (or some other database).**

Chapter 1: To Marry in May

Flags were flying and bells were ringing all over the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland as the biggest wedding in decades commenced. The sun shone down on the outdoor pavilion decked with flowers and ringed with hedges upon hedges. Many of the supervisors were quite upset about the wedding's location, but there had been some delays in the construction of the new stadium in central Grassland, and so the venue had to be changed last minute. Many even said it should be moved north of the border, where the security was tighter, but Sarasaland had been ravaged by storms all month, and the princess was adamant about having sunshine at her wedding.

Her handlers grumbled that sun was a small price to pay for her safety, but it was her special day, and no one could change her mind. Besides, the Mario Bros. would be there, so any danger would be snuffed out the moment it reared its ugly head. Not that there would be any danger – the Koopas hadn't been actively antagonizing anyone for years, and aside from the Kremlings in the far south and the occasional self-employed villain, the Mushroom World had been quite peaceful.

Therefore, no one thought to keep an eye on the Warp Pipe crowning the hill next to the pavilion. It lead to Dark Land, so it hadn't been used as transportation by any of the guests; someone had popped through earlier to make sure the Koopas weren't planning anything, but the chamber that held the other end of the pipe was locked and disused. The Koopas hadn't tried invading for nearly seven years, and surely they weren't so despicable that they would try again on the wedding day?

As it turns out, they weren't, though if anyone saw the camera poking out of the top of the Warp Pipe, they would surely assume otherwise.

After doing a wraparound to make sure the coast was clear, Morton Koopa Jr. climbed out of the Warp Pipe and started getting some shots of the wedding below. He was seventeen years old, and while he still had a few years of growing before him, it was obvious he was going to remain short and round for the rest of his life. Fortunately, unlike Roy, who was now heaving himself out of the pipe, Morton had given up his "tough guy" ambitions long ago in favour of a career in media. He loved it all: TV, radio, film and print. Of all the Koopalings, his was the most well-known face in Dark Land, and not just because of his unusual looks. He still bore his star-shaped birthmark, which was partially obscured beneath the backwards baseball cap Morton had taken to wearing to hide the fact that, unlike his bushy black eyebrows, his scalp had never grown in. That, plus his brown scales and pigment-less grey shell, certainly set Morton apart from the crowd – as if his royal status wasn't enough.

"What d'ya tink yer doin'? Get back here! Do ya want dee entiah weddin' party ta see you?" barked Roy, stepping out of the pipe. A head taller than Morton, Roy was a mountain of muscle. He wore spiked bracers around his neck, upper arms and wrists, just like his father; a custom-made, spiked, Koopatrol-like helmet also adorned his pink scull. Wendy often complained that the matte-green helmet clashed with Roy's red sunglasses and dark pink shell, but the Koopaling didn't care. In just over a year, he'd turn twenty and be appointed the head of the Koopan Guard, so everyone else knew better than to comment on his looks.

"I'm getting some aerial shots," said Morton, whipping out a different camera to take some still shots. "You want the piece to look good, don't you? It's the whole reason we're here after all, to get exclusive shots of the wedding and-"

"Ugh! Get out of the WAY Iggy!" The middle Koopaling had only just poked his head out of the pipe when his sister's hand reached up and smashed him into the side of the rim as she pulled herself up next to him. "You're all taking too long – do you know what it's like to be crammed down there waiting for you to get your smelly butts out of the _way_?"

"Yes," growled Iggy as Wendy wriggled past him, using his body as a makeshift ladder as she jabbed her spike-heeled boots around for footholds. Wendy had a condition known as Lilyfoot, which meant the bone structure of her feet were a throwback to the draconian ancestors of the Koopas: they started out tiny when she was young, and grew long and thin through her adolescence. In order to hide her mutation, Wendy took to wearing knee-high, red leather boots all the time, making her look exotically long-legged. The rest of her was average: she was thinner and less muscular than Bowselta, but she still had a nice figure, and the young woman gleefully supplemented her femininity with lipstick, pink pearls around her neck and numerous gold bangles on her arms. To complete the ensemble, Wendy used the pink spotted bow from her childhood to tie her long, ruby-red hair into a ponytail.

Iggy was on the other end of his scale. The only things he wore were a stained labcoat and fancy goggles, which could digitally magnify objects near and far away. The goggles' headband wrapped all the way around Iggy's head, and even had holes through which his horns ran; above it, Iggy's rainbow hair bore some resemblance to a pineapple, though it wasn't as stiff, and many of the "spikes" merely flopped back down over the band. A hard-working scientist, Iggy rarely found the time to wash, and was always dirty and greasy, leading many to believe the freckles on his cheeks were actually blackheads (while rare, freckles weren't totally unheard of in most Koopa species). He had a toothy grin and watery blue-grey eyes magnified by the goggles; he was as awkward as Wendy was stunning.

"It's your fault for being so impatient," said Iggy climbing out of the pipe and scowling at his sister. "You were supposed to wait a minute before coming through."

"Don't blame _me_ for the traffic jam, mister – I waited just as long as you did before _you_ went through," she responded, stretching her arms above her head and soaking up the sun.

"Liar," smirked Lemmy, having just came through the Warp Pipe himself. The second-oldest Koopaling had always been different, but no one had suspected that the runt of the litter would turn out the way he had. Lemmy was also Lilyfooted, though unlike Wendy, he wasn't afraid to show it and happily trotted around on the balls of his feet. He also had Koopfelter's Syndrome, and sported a long, flexible neck and tail like that of a female Dragon-Koopa, which, combined with the longer proportions of a normal (albeit incredibly thin) male body, put him a head taller than his parents despite the fact he was only nineteen. While Lemmy's lazy eye wasn't as bad as it was when he was little, the end of his right horn was curved downwards (the base curved upwards like a normal horn, giving the structure an S-shape), and his snout stuck out in front of his face an extra half-foot, a bit like a Kremling. But none of that bothered the cheerful Koopaling, who, like Morton, was perfectly fine with being a bit different.

The same couldn't be said for Bowser Jr., however. Not quite twelve years old, Junior was much smaller than the rest of his siblings (he came up to their elbows, on average), which only added to his sullen disposition. He wore a scarf around his face and neck at all times so that no one could see his mouth – and the fact that he only had two teeth. He only pulled the scarf down from his snout to breathe fire, though he could still only manage separate fireballs, and not constant flames. The rest of Junior was perfectly normal; his hair looked like his father's and his eyes looked like Ludwig's when he was young (small with no visible iris between the pupil and cornea). He also had thick, red eyebrows (though not as bushy as Morton's), which accentuated the scowl he wore almost as much as his scarf.

After Junior came Larry, who was the only perfectly normal Koopaling of the bunch. He wasn't bald or abnormally hairy; he didn't have dental or ocular handicaps; he didn't have any genetic disorders; he wasn't too short and he wasn't too tall. He almost always slouched, making him seem shorter than he really was, but that was more the result of his meek personality and low self-esteem. The fact that he was sixteen, and thus, in the midst of shedding all his juvenile scales for a new adult coat didn't help, though unlike the females who changed body colours from yellow to green, it wasn't overly visible on Larry. Other than that, he was also the least-changed of all the Koopalings from childhood, with his fin-like blue hairdue, his heavy-lidded, blue eyes, and his medium build. While all the other Koopalings bickered about the cramped conditions involved in Warp Pipe transportation, Larry simply watched.

Finally, Ludwig came through the Warp Pipe, after doing the best he could to dispose of any evidence the Koopalings had left in the chamber at the other end. By then, Bowser and Bowselta would have learned that their children were AWOL from Koopa Castle, and if they discovered where the Koopalings had gone, there would be hell to pay. Being the oldest, Ludwig had always felt responsible for his siblings, but the fact that he was turning twenty (and thus, entering legal adulthood) in less than a week really drove the point home. Ludwig was as tall and thick-set as Bowser, and though he wasn't as muscular, he made up for it with his magical abilities, which some said to be on-par with his legendary great-great-grandfather, Alistor Magripa. Like Bowselta and Larry, Ludwig's eyelids dropped over his red eyes; he also had blue hair like them, though the two pointed tufts he had since childhood were now pushed back behind his horns, giving him a slightly windswept look. Ludwig's most defining characteristic, however, was his large front teeth, which were fused together and protruded out from under his lips; but like Roy, Ludwig commanded too much respect for anyone to mock his appearance.

"Finally! You're here! Now we can go!" grinned Morton, starting off down the hill.

"Not so fast!" growled Roy, gripping the lip of Morton's shell. "You ain't walkin' down da side o' da hill dat's _facin'_ da wedding – we're takin' da roundabout way." Roy jutted his thumb back over his shoulder.

"But the festivities are already beginning!" whined Morton as he stormed off down the far side of the hill. "If you make me miss the princess walk down the isle, I'll never forgive you! I'll make you sorry! You wanna know what I'll do? I'll post unflattering pictures of you on the Internet and make a new meme about your flatulence and-"

"Yeah, yeah," said Roy, who was used to Morton's hollow threats.

"I don't suppose zere's any chance of turning back now?" sighed Ludwig.

"Nope," said Lemmy brightly, following the group down the hill.

Ludwig shook his head and looked at Larry, who was the only other one still on the hilltop. "Zis is a bad idea."

Larry nodded.

-x-

Once the Koopalings wrapped their way around the hill, they had to dash across an expanse of open grassland. Lemmy and Wendy used their light-bending abilities to obscure the group the best they could as they ran. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough so that any guard who happened to see the rippling, shadowy figures running up to the pavilion would most likely believe they were seeing things on account of the hot noonday sun. That was why Morton had insisted on bringing all of his siblings on his latest paparazzi adventure: he knew he'd need their skills to get into the wedding. His siblings had agreed because life in Koopa Castle during the Fire Season was equal parts smelly and boring. Usually the Koopas went elsewhere that time of year, but the Northern Fortress was being used for some intense military drilling, and the Keep in the south was too close to the border. Bowselta knew both neighboring countries were on tender-hooks over the wedding, and they didn't want the Mario Bros. to think they were planning to ruin it by camping out right next to the Mushroom Kingdom. The next time the Koopas and their enemies were to meet, it was going to be on Bowselta's watch, which is why the Koopaling's excursion was a foolhardy mission indeed.

"Zere's still time to turn back," hissed Ludwig as the group inched around the bushes.

"Shhh!" ordered Morton, who was using his videocamera to check around corners for guards. The group flicked from one clump of plants to another, circling closer and closer to the center of the pavilion. Finally, only one row of bushes separated the Koopalings from the wedding. They were at the left-hand side of the front of the ceremony. Beaming, Morton poked his camera through the hedge, so that no leaves obscured his lens as he took footage of the wedding party and the guests alike. Making sure to not move so fast that the hedges rustled and attacked attention, Morton got shots of Mario and Luigi standing beside the visiting Star Spirit, Eldstar, who would officiate the ceremony.

There was a stand of plants between Morton and the bridesmaids, but he didn't have time to shoot them anyway as the Bridal Chorus started mere seconds after the Koopalings' arrival. Morton swiveled his lens to the back of the pavilion as all the other Koopalings (except Roy) were overcome with curiosity and pushed their faces into the hedge, peering at the bride through the leaves.

For her part, Princess Daisy's eyes were locked on Luigi's. She had done away with the frivolities of flower-girls and ring-bearers, and had the scene all to herself. Even if her parents hadn't died long ago (coincidentally, in the same year that Morton was born), Daisy would have walked down the isle alone – no one was gonna give her away except her. She smiled mischievously and started walking, her plain white dress swishing about her feet as she paid no attention to the rhythm of the song and strutted towards her man at her own pace.

The audience beamed at her – even the stuffy Royal Council. It seemed everyone had come out to see Luigi and Daisy get hitched: Mario and Luigi's parents (obviously) and Mario's ex-girlfriend, Pauline, from Brooklyn; some people from the Waffle Kingdom, including Princess Éclair herself; all of Mario's past partners in crime; their old friend Yoshi; dozens of Toads, Pionpi and other random Sarasalandish species… Even Wario and Waluigi were there.

Morton was just zooming in on Daisy's face when Roy suddenly hissed, "shit!"

The other Koopalings looked up to see Roy blast a Pionpi guard with a fireball, but it was too late – it had already magically activated the alarm system, and sirens started blaring overhead. Daisy stopped cold, still a few rows away from the front of the pavilion, as she and everyone else looked around for the danger. "Come on!" bellowed Roy, but as the Koopalings sprang to their feet, more Pionpis appeared through the hedge in front of them, blue fireballs forming in their hands.

"Ahhh!" shrieked Wendy, Lemmy, Morton, Larry and Iggy, recoiling in fear and surprise, and knocking down the hedge. The guests nearest the commotion screamed and clambered away from the Koopalings, most of which were lying on their backs, tangled in the bushes, while their brothers were busy reflecting the Pionpis' attacks.

"Oh nooooooo!" shouted Mario, jumping at his Koopan adversaries, with Luigi and Daisy hot on his heels.

Roy and Junior immediately turned and leapt over the fallen hedge to meet Mario, as their siblings struggled to get up. "Bring it on!" challenged Junior.

"NO! STOP!" screamed Ludwig, stunning the Pionpis with a blast of lightning while at the same time teleporting himself between the two angry factions. Mario, Luigi and Daisy screeched to a halt, perturbed by the dangerously sparking palm Ludwig had extended in their direction; his other, equally electrified hand was facing his own siblings. "Zis is a mistake!"

"It sure is!" snarled Daisy. "Who do you think you are? Crashing someone's wedding? This is an act of freaking WAR!"

"No it's not!" said Ludwig earnestly, lowering his hands and facing Daisy. "Please, vee vere not sent here to ruin your vedding – Morton just vanted to take some pictures-"

"For the _Koopa Chronicle_," nodded Morton, who was the only Koopaling still lying in the bush by that point. "We can't get many original foreign pictures and it would be really good for-"

"Spying is a crime too," said Daisy, shaking with rage.

"No – it's not like zat," said Ludwig hurriedly, but Daisy wasn't hearing it.

"Oooh! Po Po told me this would happen," she growled.

"Yes I did, Highness," said an elderly Pionpi, gliding over from the stands. "But please don't call me Po Po."

"Yeah? Well some security force you've got – they let them get all the way in! They're as bad as the damn Toads!" Daisy waved a disparaging arm in the direction of her maid of honour, Princess Peach, who was ringed with three quivering Toad guards who had hurried up from the stands to "protect" her from the Koopalings.

"That's why I have a backup plan," said Po Po, flourishing his hand in the air. Immediately, metal rods shot up from the framework of the pavilion, the ray guns mounted the their ends clicking to life and sending red targeting beams shooting through the air. Soon each Koopaling looked as if they had contracted a mild case of Ostro Pox, as the whining sound of charging capacitors filled the air.

"Super Scopes!" gasped Peach.

"Zappers, actually," said Professor E. Gadd, scurrying to the front of the crowd. "I designed and built them myself! Oh yes, it was no trouble at all, really – the technology was all there. Concealing them within the lattice of the pavilion was another matter entirely, but the flowers and hedges helped. You see I merely had to-"

"Jeeze, this guy rambles as much as you do, Morty," sneered Wendy.

"You won't be so witty once the Zappers get through with you, missy," hissed Po Po.

"Vait, zere must be some vay vee can vork zis out peacefully," beseeched Ludwig.

"I agree," said Peach.

"Oh yeah? Well it's _my_ wedding, and _I_ say 'FIRE'!" shrieked Daisy.

Before the old Pionpi could wave his arm and activate the Zappers, however, the gun closest to the wedding party on the right-hand side of the pavilion exploded. Many more along the right side soon followed suit as the sound of a rapidly approaching army filled the air. And then, Queen Bowselta Koopa jumped onto the scaffolding, next to the smoking remains of the first Zapper.

A curt wave of Po Po's arm had every single surviving Zapper pointed at Bowselta, but she wasn't phased. "Shoot me, and we will rain fire upon _both_ your kingdoms."

Everyone inside the pavilion stared silently up at Bowselta in shock. Daisy was the first to find her voice. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" bellowed Bowser, smashing down the hedge opposite the one the Koopalings had demolished. "Er, wait – what was the question, exactly?"

Bowselta rolled her eyes at Bowser as more Koopas spilled into the pavilion from behind their king. Kammy, some more Magikoopas, a few Paratroopas and even a squadron of Lakitus also appeared overhead, making short work of the remaining Zappers.

"Oh," gasped Luigi. "Sh- she wasn't kidding about the raining f-f-f-fire stuff."

This time, it was Daisy's turn to roll her eyes.

"Your presence here is an act of war!" cried Po Po, pulling out one last Zapper from his sleeve and holding it up to Ludwig's forehead (he had to float high off the ground in order to reach). "Do anything funny, and I'll shoot him!"

"At point-blank range, the Zapper might just be fatal," mused E. Gadd, as he and the Koopas all stared at the gun in horror. "…_Maybe_."

"You wouldn't," said Bowselta, struggling to keep her voice level.

"I would," warned Po Po.

"Do it and we'll kill you!" roared Bowser.

"Do that and _we'll_-a-kill _you_!" countered Mario.

"Yeah!" chorused all of his partners in the audience.

"Please, stop this!" cried Peach. "Weddings are places of peace and love, not senseless violence! Don't do this!"

As Peach spoke, Po Po made the mistake of taking his eyes off Ludwig, who swiftly reached up and knocked the gun away from his head. The old Pionpi shouted and pulled the trigger, but the laserbeam shot harmlessly into the air, and before he could try again, Ludwig had wrenched the Zapper from his wizened old hands.

"Ha ha! Who's killing who _now_?" gloated Bowser as Ludwig turned the gun on its original owner.

"No one," boomed Bowselta. "Ludwig, destroy the gun – we're leaving."

"What?" whined Bowser. "I mean, we're already here, and all the foreign leaders are here – we can do this!"

"Oh no you-a-can't!" growled Mario, as his partners charged up their strongest attacks around him.

"We're just here for the Koopalings," insisted Bowselta, looking down at her children. "Now _go_."

"Right," nodded Ludwig, catching Roy's eye and gesturing him to lead the way. Ludwig kept the Zapper trained on Po Po, and the hovering Magikoopas covered Mario, Luigi, Daisy and even Peach and E. Gadd as the Koopalings crossed the pavilion. Bowser scowled and stepped to the side to allow his wayward children to pass. Ludwig brought up the rear; only when he was standing beside his father did he flip the gun around in his hand, gripping it right on the barrel. He didn't want to destroy the Zapper – it was a nifty bit of technology, but Bowselta had given him a direct order, and considering the trouble the Koopalings were already in, Ludwig felt it would be unwise to press his luck anymore. Using a nonverbal spell to weaken the Zapper, Ludwig snapped it in two and threw the pieces onto the ground before turning and leaving the pavilion.

Bowser followed him, and the rest of the Koopas came after him while the aerial troops covered the retreat. Finally, Bowselta and Kammy were the only ones left overlooking the wedding. The queen smirked. "My regards to the happy couple."

"I love weddings," grinned Kammy as the pair turned away.

"Make sure they leave the premises," ordered Po Po. Once the Pionpi guards had drifted after the Koopas, he turned to Daisy. "I am so sorry, Highness."

Daisy was practically steaming from her ears. "'Happy couple' my ass!"

"Look on the bright side," said Luigi, with a weak smile. "That kid with the camera probably got some good shots of the whole thing."

"What, so we can look back on it and laugh?" said Daisy, smiling in-spite of herself.

"Yeah, something like that," said Luigi, scratching his head and blushing.

"So… Shall we continue with the ceremony?" offered Eldstar, who had been watching from the sidelines the entire time.

"What! In this _mess_?"

"Oh, shut up, Po Po," chuckled Daisy, taking Luigi's hand. "At least it's still sunny."

Po Po growled and floated off, muttering darkly to himself about sunshine and Koopas, but neither Daisy nor Luigi heard him as they made their way to the altar.


	3. Extinction

Chapter 2: Extinction

The Koopas jogged all the way back to the pipe; many of the athletically challenged Koopalings were on the verge of collapsing by the time they reached the top of the hill, but they didn't dare complain. Bowselta and the Koopalings went through first, and watched in silence as the troops exited the pipe chamber on the other side. Bowselta could have left the Koopalings' haranguing until they all got back to the castle, but she felt there would be less eavesdroppers around if it was done in the pipe chamber, away from all the guards and servants.

Bowser brought up the rear. "None of the Mushroomians or Sarasalanders followed us," he reported with a grin. "They were too busy freaking out over their ruined pagoda! Bwa ha ha!"

"You mean 'pavillion', Your Incorrectness," corrected Kammy.

Bowser growled, but before he could retort, Bowselta cut in. "Kammy, keep watch outside – make sure no one's hanging around."

"Yes, Your Disciplinarianness, right away." Kammy shuffled out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Bowselta turned to face her children.

"It was Morton's idea!" blurted Wendy.

"Hey!"

"We only went along because he _begged_ us to!" added Iggy.

"I did not!"

"We wanted to make sure he didn't get caught," said Lemmy.

"Yeah, well you did a great job at that didn't you? You cowardly back-stabbing siblings, I'm gonna-"

"Enough!" commanded Bowselta, silencing Morton and causing the other Koopalings to wince – they knew what was coming, and it wasn't pleasant. "You are _all_ responsible for this. Morton, what were you _thinking_?"

"I-"

"And the rest of you! You shouldn't have let him go!"

"What were we supposed ta do? Rat 'im out? No way! We Koopalings stick togeda!" said Roy.

"Yeah!" chorused Wendy, Iggy, Junior, Lemmy and Morton.

"You were _supposed_ to talk him out of this!" growled Bowselta.

"Maybe if you actually let us _do_ anything we'd be little goodie-goodies, but-" began Junior.

"'But' nothing!"

"It has been a _little_ boring…" murmured Larry.

"So what? So you decide to go out and start a war?" Larry squirmed under his mother's gaze.

"We weren't trying to start a war – we got caught by accident," protested Lemmy.

"'_Accident_'? That place was crawling with guards, you should have _known_ you'd get caught! Have I taught you _nothing_? How could you be so careless? If we hadn't come after you, you'd be dead by now!"

"Those guns didn't look _that_ powerful-" argued Iggy.

"Neither does Mario, and yet we all know what he can do – and what he _has_ done in the past. He had an army of allies with him too – if they had attacked, the guns wouldn't have been needed to finish you off!" Bowselta's words echoed around the room. The Koopalings had never heard their mother sound so… shrill.

"Vee're sorry, Muzzer," said Ludwig, staring at the ground. "You're right – going zere vas foolish… Perhaps vee have been living in peace for so long, vee've forgotten vat it's like to be afraid." He looked down the line at his siblings, and then up at Bowselta. "Vee vill not go looking for trouble again."

Bowselta's eyes narrowed. "You better not."

After another uneasy silence, Bowser cleared his throat. "So, uh… should we head back then?"

"Sure – we can decide on their punishment later, once we have a clearer picture of the whole affair."

Bowser sighed, "if you insist." While he was mad at the Koopalings, he knew how difficult it was to come up with a punishment that will affect them all equally. Restocking the library bookshelves would be painful for Wendy, Bowser Jr. and Roy, but fun for Morton and Ludwig; banning TV and radio would hurt Wendy, Morton, Lemmy and Bowser Jr., but not affect Roy, Ludwig, Iggy or Larry very much. They all hated cleaning, but that was too demeaning for members of the royal family, and simply grounding them wouldn't work because there was nowhere to go outside during the Fire Season anyway.

"But first," said Bowselta, holding out her hand. "Give me all the recordings you took of the wedding, Morton – film, photos _and_ audio."

"What!" wailed Morton. "But then this whole thing would've been for nothing! I don't know what Luddy was talking about with all his 'looking for danger' BS – I just wanted pictures, honest! I meant no harm – and _hey_, it could even be useful! There's footage of all Mario's allies – it's a good snapshot of what we'd be up against when _you_ decide to attack them, right? And we also got a preview of those Zapper guns – now they won't have a surprise weapon to use against us! Oh, you aren't going to _destroy_ the film, are you?" Morton looked pleading up at his mother as he handed over his equipment (and the film inside).

Bowselta thought for a moment. "…No, I'll probably add it to our espionage files."

Morton breathed a sight of relief.

"I'll put special security locks on it though – you'll never see this stuff again."

"But- but-"

"Oh, and give me the digital copies you tried to sneak out of this camera too," said Bowselta, peering into an open slot of Morton's still-shot camera.

Morton nearly cried.

-xxx-

The pipe chamber was part of a greater complex of Warp Pipes imbedded in the mountainside overlooking the old town ruins. The lava moat around the castle was very deep, and so the pipes could not be brought directly into the castle, though this had proven helpful during Mario's many forays into Dark Land. Instead of allowing him directly into the castle, the Warp Pipes had deposited him outside, giving the Koopas more time to try and stop him (not that it had ever made a difference).

After locking the door behind them and making their way out of the bunker-like complex, the Koopas started on the descent down the hillside. The path was well worn, and the chamber wasn't too high, so it was a fast and easy walk. Kammy tried to strike up conversation with Bowser and Bowselta, but the queen was lost in thought, and it soon rubbed off on Bowser as well. Kammy knew better than to try to speak with the dejected Koopalings.

Finally, as the group passed through the ruins, Bowser reached out and gripped his wife's arm. "Wanna go for a walk?"

Bowselta, the Koopalings and Kammy all turned around and blinked at Bowser in confusion. "What? _Now?_" frowned Bowselta.

Bowser nodded. "I need to talk to you about something – right now, before we get back."

Bowselta raised a perplexed eyebrow. "You sure it can't wait until we get back?"

Bowser nodded again. "I'm sure."

The queen rolled her eyes and beckoned Kammy over. "Here, take Morton's camera stuff to Army Hammer Bro. – the memory cards and film are under his jurisdiction now. Ensure no one takes a look at them until I get back, and make sure there's not a spec of data left in that equipment before it's returned to Morton, got it?"

"Yes, Your Exactness," saluted Kammy, popping the cameras Bowselta had pulled out and handed her into her own hammerspace. "What about the Koopalings?"

"They're not to speak to anyone either. So I guess you can escort them to their rooms," Bowselta shrugged.

"Sending them to their rooms? Mweh heh heh! It's like they're all little children again!" Kammy chuckled.

"If they're gonna act like immature children, they'll be treated like immature children," said Bowselta firmly, turning away and stepping off the path with Bowser.

"Ah well, come on _kiddies_! Mweh heh heh!" Kammy once again led the way through the ruins. The road leading to the bunkers was one of the only paths through the village that was kept clear. Once the group turned onto the main street (which led to the train station) from the side street, Iggy nudged Ludwig's. "Hey, where's the Zapper you stole?"

"I destroyed it," said Ludwig.

"What? Why?" Iggy struggled to keep his voice lowered.

"Muzzer told me to," responded Ludwig. "She hates guns – I sought it best to not try her patience in trying to save zee veapon. Besides, vee already have laser technology."

Iggy sighed. "I guess you're right… _As usual_."

At the front of the group, Kammy smiled.

-xxx-

"So what did you want to talk about?" asked Bowselta, absentmindedly kicking a pile of wood over. The air was rank with sulphur from the lava pools – no one but Bowser would be crazy enough to go for a walk in the ruins on such a day, and they would not be overheard.

"About what happened back there," said Bowser.

"If you wanted to add something, you could've spoken up," shrugged Bowselta.

"Oh, no, I'm fine with you doing all the talking with the kids," said Bowser, shaking his head. "I just thought you seemed a little… freaked."

"'Freaked'?" said Bowselta flatly, frowning at Bowser.

The King nodded. "Freaked."

"My kids almost got roasted alive – of course I'd be freaked! And you should've been freaked too!" spat Bowselta.

"They were just Super Scopes-"

"Zappers," corrected Bowselta.

"Fine, 'Zappers' – whatever! They're not _that_ dangerous. Remember when I attacked Jewelry Land? They sting worse than Fuzzy bites, but they're hardly deadly. The Koopalings have survived it before-"

"When they were protected by giant mechas!" countered Bowselta. "If their lasers can destroy iron-clad robots, what do you think they will do to naked flesh? If their lasers are _half_ as powerful as our technology, they'd- they'd-" Bowselta's hand unconsciously gripped her right leg as she struggled to keep her voice level. "As I told the Koopalings – if we hadn't come after them, they'd be dead by now."

Bowser shook his head. "I don't think they'd go _that_ far-"

"What stand-off were _you_ watching?" snarled Bowselta. "They had the Koopalings surrounded! That old Pionpi happily put a gun to our son's head, and if we hadn't gotten there in time, he would have fried Ludwig and all the others' brains out and served them as _hors d'oeuvres_ at the wedding reception!"

"Now _that_'s ridiculous."

"What's ridiculous is how close our children came to a violent and painful end!"

"Well, they didn't – and there's no way they'd be stupid enough to pull another stunt like that. It's over."

"It's _never_ over!" cried Bowselta, pacing around the clearing. "Even when we give them years of peace, all they do is build weapons and wait for us to attack them again! What happens when we're gone? Have you ever wondered about that?"

"What do you mean?" Bowser was a little taken aback by the question.

"I mean, what happens when you and I are _not_ here to save the Koopalings?" Bowselta stepped towards Bowser, looking him straight in the eye. "We're a dying race, Bowser. Once we're gone, the Koopalings will be all alone, and once they're gone, there will be no one to stop the humans from ruling _our_ world."

Bowser blinked and looked away. "I… We… That's not important right now. We're not _that_ old, we'll have plenty of time to worry about that later."

"_Will we?_" hissed Bowselta.

Bowser's eyes snapped back to his wife's. "Bowselta… is there something you're not telling me?"

"N- no. What do you mean?" bluffed Bowselta.

Bowser searched his wife's face before answering. He knew exactly what he wanted to say: "_I mean, is there something you're not telling me about that scar on your leg? The one you always avoided talking about when you returned from the human world. The one you keep measuring with the calipers in your bedside table at night – when you think I'm sleeping. How could you think I wouldn't notice that it's been spreading? That it hurts you sometimes? That it's killing you inch-by-inch?_" Bowser didn't want to ask her – he loved her, and he knew she would tell him the truth some day. He had hoped today would be that day, but it looked like she wasn't ready yet. And he wasn't going to push her. Bowser sighed. "I mean… Nothing, I guess… I don't know what I mean."

Bowselta also sighed, though hers wasn't of frustrated disappointment, but of relief. "I shouldn't have brought it up. I was just so afraid that Ludwig was going to have his head blown off on the eve of his adulthood."

"I was scared too," said Bowser, pulling Bowselta into a hug. She let out another wistful breath of air and leaned into her husband as he stroked her hair, silently praying to Koopa that his suspicions about her leg wound were wrong.

"You know what's the saddest part of it all?" murmured Bowselta.

"What?"

"They'll never have this," she said, holding Bowser tighter. "The Koopalings, I mean – they'll always be alone."

"I dunno, they could always fall in love with members of another species…"

"That never works out… Except in children's stories... There are too many social or physical boundaries. Of all people, you should know that."

Bowser winced at the edge to Bowselta's voice. "I didn't love Peach the way I love you – how many times do I have to tell you that?"

Bowselta smiled and kissed Bowser's cheek. "We can worry about that later."

-xxxxx-

By the next day, things had returned to normal in Koopa Castle. Bowser and Bowselta had decided to punish the Koopalings by forcing them to attend rigorous tutoring sessions all week, with the topics individualized to each Koopaling to ensure they'd all suffer equally. Most of the kids got physics seminars, though Ludwig, Iggy and Larry got lectures on the economic history of the Desert Hill region of the Mushroom Kingdom, which was patchy at best given the lack of obscure and obsolete Mushroom Kingdom data available to the Koopas. Morton, who enjoyed learning about anything, got the opposite punishment: his regular classes were cancelled, and in their place, he had to copy lines of binary code for hours on end.

By lunch, Bowselta's lessons had the Koopalings complaining enough for her to be quite pleased with herself. Bowser, on the other hand, was still dwelling on their conversation, and after lunch, he asked Kammy to accompany him to the Permanent Records Room. Intrigued, the Chief Advisor happily summoned another Magikoopa to oversee the Koopalings' regular classes for that afternoon, and followed her King down to depths of the castle.

"This is certainly shaping up to be a peculiar week, isn't it, Your Nostalgicness?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm not nostalgic," grunted Bowser.

"I think you are," said Kammy, floating along on her broomstick as Bowser stomped down the steep stairwell. "So am I, actually. First the Koopalings are up to their old antics, and then you run off into the ruins with Her Feistyness, and _now_ you're visiting the Permanent Records Room."

"So?"

"So, you haven't been there in years! You only ever went there because Bowselta went there – when you were young and inseparable! I can't help but wonder if you're thinking back to your days of kissing in the dark and-"

"What in the world would give you _that_ idea? You dirty old bat!" growled Bowser, blushing as flames licked his lips. "If I wanted to make out with Bowselta in the Permanent Records Room again, why would I bring _you_ instead of her?"

"…Good point," said Kammy sheepishly, making a mental note to go easy on the harlequin romance novels – they made her too single-minded.

"_All_ my points are good," said Bowser.

"Okay then, Your Pointyness, why _didn't_ you bring Bowselta?"

"Because, unlike you, my head's not in the gutter! Bwa ha ha!"

Kammy frowned. "What's the _real_ reason? Why'd you want _me_ to help you instead of her?"

"It's a surprise."

"Your Short-Sightedness, I can't help you look something up if you don't tell me what it is or why we're looking for it!"

"Huh? No, no, it's a surprise for _Bowselta_, you stupid hag." By that point, Bowser and Kammy had reached the Permanent Records Room. Pulling out a ring of keys, Bowser began to look for the right one. After a few duds, he grew impatient. "Grrr, why do I have to carry around all these keys? I'm the King – I should have access to all the rooms in the castle!"

"You _do_ have access, Your Fumblingness, that's why you have all these keys – here, let me find the right one for you."

"Hmph, about time you volunteered for that," pouted Bowser as Kammy took the keys and used a spell to flip through them in the blink of an eye. "Why can't I have a skeleton key like Bowselta?"

"It would be a security risk. Having one around is bad enough – a Universal Key in the wrong hands could be disastrous."

"Are you saying my hands are the wrong hands?"

"No," lied Kammy as she unlocked the door. "But someone could easily take it from you-"

"They could easily take these keys too," said Bowser, jangling the ring that Kammy handed back to him as they stepped into the room.

"I see your point…"

"Like I said before, my points are always on the mark," grinned Bowser, putting his keys back into his hammerspace. Flattery usually brought these little discussions to a close – a fact Kammy gratefully discovered long ago.

"So, what _are_ we doing here, Your Sharpness?"

"Well, Bowselta's really cut-up about the fact that we're the only Dragon-Koopas left, but didn't she have a friend who moved away along time ago?"

"Yes: Emerald Lakipa. But her entire family disappeared in 1986."

"Oh really, says who?"

"Says the Census," said Kammy, flying over to a shelf of exceptionally thick books. With a wave of her wand, she pulled out a tome entitled "_Census 14 – 1986_" and floated it over to the nearest table. She flipped through the pages, eventually finding the entry she was looking for:

_Draconigena grandis_ . . Crusher Blargg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~500  
_Draconigena lavo_ . . . . Blargg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~43500  
_Draconigena Yoshi_ . . . Gargantua Blargg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~1400  
_Draconis __agnates_ . . . . Koopa Kid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274  
_**Draconis koopa**_** . . . . . Dragon-Koopa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9  
**_Draconoa ignifer_ . . . . . Yurian Boo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~25000

"Psh, they haven't even counted all of _us_ properly, so why should I believe them?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, there should be eight Koopalings, plus me and Bowselta – that's ten, they have _nine_ Dragon-Koopas listed."

"Junior was born in _1991,_ Your Forgetfulness – five years after this Census was taken."

"They still could've gotten it wrong. I mean, look at those numbers: 500, 43500 – I highly doubt that's exactly how many Blarggs there are in the world."

"It's _not_ exactly how many: the squiggly lines in front of those numbers mean those are estimates or approximations. They can't go counting every last Blargg-"

"Which means they're lazy – so why should I trust some egghead Stars who won't even count all the Blarggs. For all we know, they never _bothered_ going north to find Bowselta's friend."

"They did before," said Kammy, going and collecting two more books. _Census 13 – 1978_ read:

_**Draconis **_**koopa . . . . . Dragon-Koopa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4**

"That was before any of the Koopalings were born," said Kammy. "It was just you, Bowselta and the three Lakipas up north."

"But they only have four down," said Bowser smugly.

"That's because Bowselta was the renegade Shadow Thief at the time – no one knew who or what she was, and she liked it that way. It's the same with _Census 12 – 1970_, see?"

"Okay, okay! So they've gotten the Lakipas on census before – how do we know they didn't just get lazy that one time?"

"When the census came back _sans_ Lakipas, Bowselta sent someone up there to double-check. Apparently the entire family had been killed in an avalanche, don't you remember?"

"Um, yeeesss…?" said Bowser, smiling hopefully at Kammy, who scowled. "Okay, so I _don't_ remember – so sue me. We had seven kids running around! My hands were full, and it's not like Bowselta would make a big deal of it – how am I supposed to remember every little thing she told me _twenty years ago_?"

"Actually, it was seventeen-"

"I don't care! And I don't care what these books say either. I'm _sure_ there's another Dragon-Koopa _somewhere_ out there. And we are gonna find them!"

"How?"

"We'll use the history books," explained Bowser. "King Morton forced almost all the Dragon-Koopas out of Dark Land when he unified the Kingdom – all we have to do is use the records to double-check the numbers so we can make sure we can track every single last Dragon-Koopa who left the country."

"_We already have_ – they were all killed," moaned Kammy. After the Koopalings had learned that the Dragon-Koopas had been killed by the Kremlings in the alternate dimension beyond the Magic Mirror, Bowselta investigated it on her side, soon discovering that Kaptain K. Rool had finished-off the Dragon-Koopas months before Bowser was even born.

"Maybe not," said the Koopa King. "Some could have escaped."

"Kaptain K. Rool kept their sculls as proof – he was more than happy to show them to Her Investigativeness, Ludwig and Roy when we went down there."

"Why didn't I go inside the Kremling's grotto with them, again?" Bowser frowned, drawing a blank on the Koopan excursion to the Alligator Archipelago.

"You were busy minding the Koopa Cruiser, Your Forgetfulness – there were quite a few pirate ships circling about."

Bowser nodded. "Right… Well, I still don't think he got them all."

Kammy hung her head. "I am sorry, Your Deludedness, but you're the only ones left."

"You just don't want to go through all those records," growled Bowser. "But that's just too bad for you."

"What else is new?" muttered Kammy as she floated off to gather more books.

- Six Hours Later -

"Okay, let's run through this one more time," said Bowser, picking up a piece of paper and squinting at the chicken-scratch that was his handwritten notes.

"Let's not," sighed Kammy. "Dinner's soon, and if you're late, Her Suspiciousness is gonna ask questions…"

Bowser ignored her (again), and started from the top. "Okay, so my father kicked everyone out in 1959-"

"And the Kremlings killed everyone in 1960," continued Kammy.

"Not _everyone_," scowled Bowser. "Only eight of them."

"Yes, yes," Kammy rolled her eyes; by that point, she didn't even need to look at the notes to remember the families. "Andrew Magripa, his parents – one of which was Morton's aunt-"

"Plus my other great-aunt," added Bowser, who had been desensitized to the fact that his father banished his own family from the Kingdom long ago.

"-and your grandmother too. And the three surviving Cloopas. Eight Dragon-Koopas, eight skulls."

"Yeah, but the 1954 Census had nineteen Dragon-Koopas, and then the next one only had nine – that's a difference of _ten_."

"Yes, I know – I _can_ do math, Your Patronizingness."

Bowser frowned again – if Kammy wasn't surrounded by highly important papers, she'd be burnt to a crisp by now. "The nine living Dragon-Koopas are me, Bowselta and her parents, and her friends, the Lakipas. One of the dead ones is Churcha Katrooka-"

"Who died before the Unification in '58," cut-in Kammy.

"Meaning the other "dead" Dragon-Koopa had to have been Brank Hammerko, who was last seen _before_ the eight other Dragon-Koopas set sail for the Kremling waters."

"They set sail for the Waffle Kingdom," corrected Kammy, who had one of the history books open. "But they came back when the diet proved too rich – all the animals there were more sugary than meaty, it seemed. They couldn't land on the hostile Mushroom Continent, so they went south and we all know what happened then!" Kammy snapped the book closed and drew her finger across her throat, a bitter grin on her face.

"Glad to see you're taking this so lightly," grumbled Bowser.

"I'm sorry, Your Seriousness, but I'm tired and hungry, and we've been at this for _hours_ and we already know what happened to everyone!"

"And you say _I_ get whiney!" retorted Bowser. "Well, we don't know where Brank Hammerko went."

"He went north – just like the Lakipas, only he disappeared right away. He was only fifteen at the time – his parents had died young, and while he wasn't the only one who opposed Morton's Unification, he was the only one immature enough to pack it up and leave _before_ Morton showed his true colours and _kicked_ everyone out. He hasn't been seen or heard of in over forty-four years – he's _dead_."

"I'm not convinced," frowned Bowser. "But you raised a good point – I'm getting hungry too. So for the sake of dinner, we'll move along to the Lakipas."

"They remained in Dark Land until the two seniors both died, then Hector and Ruby Lakipa took their daughter Emerald to visit their old friends, the Parakays, who were trapped in Dark Land by poverty. Then they went north, where they were eventually killed in an avalanche shortly before the Census in 1986." Kammy looked up from her own notes. "In short, they're dead too."

"That's why your notes suck," said Bowser. "_My_ notes say… 'why stay until '67? Shouldn't Dad've been 'get out' to them earlier? Same as B's folks?' and then there's some more question marks."

"At least my notes make sense," retorted Kammy.

"What're you talking about? My notes make sense – why _didn't_ they get kicked out earlier?"

"They were popular with their people – real high-end Koopas, so Morton let them stay until the old king and queen died. The Parakays, on the other hand, were under the radar in the Village – I'm sure if Moron had lived longer, he would've kicked them out. So no, it's not the same as 'B's folks' – assuming 'B' is Her _Named_ness?"

"You see? My notes _do_ make sense," grinned Bowser, before standing up and stretching. "Well, other than good ol' Brank, I'm stumped – assuming your Cenusus are correct."

"They are," frowned Kammy, taking Bowser's actions as a sign they were going to leave and beginning to gather up the books. "And Brank's a dead-end too, Your Lucklessness."

"We'll come back tomorrow or maybe later this week and take another look – I'm not done here," said Bowser, waggling his fingers.

"Yes, Your Stubbornness," sighed Kammy. "Can you at least help me put the books back?"

"I dunno, _you_ weren't being very helpful today…"

Kammy knew arguing would do her no good, so she didn't even try. "Just put the Censuses back, okay?"

Bowser rolled his eyes. "_Fine_ – if it'll stop your whining."

"That it will, Your Helpfulness," beamed Kammy, floating away on her broomstick with a stack of books to reshelf.

Bowser piled the seven Censuses they had referenced – spanning from 1946 to 1986 – into his arms and lugged them over to their shelf, where he started sticking them at random.

"And make sure you reshelf them in order!" came Kammy's voice from behind another wall of books.

Bowser growled, but he obeyed his Chief Advisor and began rearranging the books. The shelf was totally full, so he had to pull one book out in order to push another over, which he felt was an unreasonable amount of trouble seeing as the spines had the dates and numbers anyway. Bowser paused as he finally got the '86 Census to the far right of the hole.

"Hey, Batty? Why didn't you bring me the latest two Censuses?" asked Bowser, peering at _Census 15 – 1994_ and _Census 16 – 2002_.

"They're both ten and ten – Her Hopefulness and I checked the Dragon-Koopa entries when they came in!" explained Kammy as she scooped up the last few books.

"Oh… But what about this skinny Census?" Unwilling to go back to shuffling his miss-shelved Censuses, Bowser reached out and grabbed the book on the extreme right, next to the end of the shelf. Its cover read "_Census 16: Addendum – 2003_".

"It's an Addendum," said Kammy, turning the corner on her broomstick and floating into Bowser's corridor to replace the three issues of _Encyclopedia Koopa_ the two had referenced that afternoon.

"That doesn't help me," growled Bowser, opening the book. At only a half-inch thick, it was about an eighth the size of the regular Censuses, but it had an extra column of numbers – instead of "totals", there was a row of "additions" with "final totals" after that.

"Some regions were always late with their totals, and until that World Leaders Summit in 2001 – you have to at least remember _that_ – those numbers never got printed. But _now_ we print this Addendum six months later – thus adding those regions. Fortunately, they only have to reprint a few species, seeing as it's only the extreme outlying regions that miss the deadline."

"If they just sent their surveyors out earlier that wouldn't happen," chuckled Bowser.

"That'd mess up statistics," said Kammy.

"It's just because they're lazy and you know it – if they wanted to make up for it, they'd reprint the entire book. There's only one copy per kingdom, right? That's like seven kingdoms for the entire world!"

"Eight, actually."

"Whatever."

"Can we go now?" moaned Kammy, watching Bowser flip through the Addendum.

"Just a sec – I wanna check to see if Brank showed up in one of those 'extreme places'. He sounds like the kinda guy who'd hang out in an extreme place."

Kammy wondered what Bowser's idea of an "extreme place" was – probably skate parks and the like. But that was beside the point, and she shook her head wearily. "Your Desperateness, if they had found another Dragon-Koopa, they would've announced it."

"But they're really lazy – and they didn't even try telling anyone about how we had dwindled down to one family, which is even more newsworthy! Besides, the Stars run the censuses, right? Well, they hate us Koopas! Which is why I've been saying they'd probably not sweat it if they missed…" Bowser trailed off, his finger frozen on the page and a grin spreading across his face.

-x-

Bowselta scowled at the door to the Throne Room, poking at her dinner absentmindedly with her fork as the Koopalings munched away before her. Bowser was almost never late for dinner, and Kammy had been missing all afternoon as well – a different Magikoopa had to conjure up the dinner table and chairs for the royal Koopas. Something was up, but as Bowselta caught the distant sound of feet pounding on the stone floors, she smiled and turned to her food. Bowser was running, so he must've dozed off somewhere and was now embarrassingly tardy for the evening meal. It wouldn't be the first time…

Soon, the side-doors to the Throne Room burst open, forcing the Terrapins who had been standing guard inside to leap out of the way. Bowselta and the Koopalings turned to see Bowser rushing over to them, babbling about something excitedly and waving a book about in his hand. He reminded Bowselta a bit of Morton Jr., actually. Kammy was there as well, shouting just as loudly.

"I told her!"

"We were down there six hours!"

"And here it is!"

"Can you believe it!"

"Proof!"

"And he wouldn't let me take washroom breaks!"

"In this Addey-thing!"

"_I_ couldn't believe it!"

"Here, see!"

Bowser thrust the book into Bowselta's hands. Her eyes widened in alarm. "Bowser, is this a Census book? These _don't_ leave the Permanent Records Room! They're-"

"No, no, no, I had to show you, look!"

"You won't believe it!" grinned Kammy as some of the Koopalings rushed over to the head of the table to read over their mother's shoulders.

"See, there! See?" Bowser pointed, nearly bouncing around with glee like a child as Bowselta's breath caught in her throat when she saw the seventh line of the 58th page of the Addendum of the Sixteenth Census:

_**Draconis **_**koopa . . . . . Dragon-Koopa . . . . . . . . . . . . +2 . . . 12**


	4. The Fleet that Never Sailed

Chapter 3: The Fleet that Never Sailed

Kamek shot through the water, squinting into the hazy distance and hoping nothing would appear after-all. Even though he was a few meters under the surface, the ocean was still churning around him, and he was glad he was a ghost: swimming as a corporeal being would be out of the question. Kamek liked storms, but not when they occurred here. When the clouds were swirling and when the waves were pitching in this part of the ocean, it meant the portal to Earth was open.

This had been happening periodically for many years; usually nothing came of it, but sometimes vessels were pulled through from the human dimension, twisted and destroyed by the journey. There were never any survivors, and while the mysterious wrecks that were recovered on the ocean floor were studied intently, no one could guess at where they came from. They brought with them information from another world, all of which was kept secret by the Brooklyn-based organizations that harvested the artifacts. Until Queen Bowselta Koopa revealed the portal to the world, that is, and forced all the relevant information to come to light.

Many wondered about the dangers of being connected to an apparently militaristic dimension, and for a while patrols were assigned to the area. Sometimes the portal would open many times in a matter of months, and other times it would be inactive for years, but either-way, nothing more came through. Then, as King K. Rool and the Kremlings stepped-up their own warmongering and started taking over small island nations throughout the Alligator Archipelago, Brooklyn's politicians decided it would be better to defend against the enemy they knew was coming for them, instead of one beyond the waters. The patrols stopped in 2002, and no one even batted an eye when the latest atmospheric disturbance lingered beyond the usual four-hour duration. Kamek knew the residual clouds only happened when the vortex brought something through from the other side, and he had a feeling that this something was something big.

Even though he could no longer gaze into crystal balls and see the future, Kamek's energy was more in-tune with that of the world around him now that it was not trapped within a body. He felt the portal open, he felt the vortex erupting, and he didn't have to feel the humans themselves to know what had come through.

He prayed to the almighty Koopa that he was wrong, but soon he could hear something through the waters. The cavitation of propellers and the thrum of engines filled the ocean with their low rumbling, and Kamek sped up, slowly rising towards the surface as he went. Suddenly, shapes appeared in the water before the undead Magikoopa. First one ship's bow came slicing through the blue haze, and then another, and another: a fleet.

Kamek shot upwards, willing himself invisible before he burst into the open air. As he rose higher, he could see the situation was far worse than he had imagined: there were at least forty human ships in the fleet. Kamek recognized the ship nearest him to be a destroyer, though it was different from the ones he had seen during his time monitoring Earth. There was more hull plating on her deck, and it seemed like the missile launchers and the rest of the ship's artillery had been stored within the ship. The humans were still assembling some of the larger guns, though the destroyer was already in a good enough condition to fight anything that challenged her. The portal had only activated a few hours earlier, but Kamek was too horrified to be impressed at how fast the humans worked; he had always worried the humans would invade the Mushroom World, and now they were.

He flew past the leading destroyer and made for the largest ship in the fleet: an aircraft carrier that dwarfed the largest Koopan airship. There were actually two supercarriers, so Kamek chose the one with more escort destroyers. There were smaller helicopter transports as well, and many of these already had choppers on deck, ready to take to the air. There was even a helicopter on the aircraft carrier Kamek was approaching, still winding down its rotors. Kamek made a beeline for the tower; peering into the bridge, Kamek searched for the captain, but to his delight, found the admiral overseeing the entire fleet instead.

He was a tall human with chiseled features – the very essence of a military man. The name on his uniform read "Griggs". He was talking to some of his men, but as he left the room, Kamek plucked up the nerve to fly through the window and into the bridge. Carefully avoiding the bustling humans, Kamek transparently followed Admiral Griggs to his ready-room, which was already occupied by another officer.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Bill," said Griggs, shaking the other man's hand. "Captain Olsen was fretting about the Hornets."

Bill (or, as his uniform read, "Vice Admiral Travali") grinned. "We'll send 'em over as soon as your boys get your arrestor wires set-up."

"I still don't see why the air force insisted we use some of their blasted Falcons – our men can handle their birds over land just as well as sea!"

"I'm surprised they didn't push any bombers on us," said Travali. "Have we gotten any good looks at what we're up against yet?"

"You mean the geography or the alien technology?"

"Well, technically, we're the aliens now," chuckled Travali.

Griggs didn't return the smile. "This is serious business, Travali."

The other officer sobered up. "Sorry, sir. I'm still having a little trouble wrapping me head around all this. We've been preparing for this mission so long – now that we're here, it's absolutely unreal."

"It'll become real when the aliens catch onto us," growled Griggs, walking over and turning on a computer monitor mounted in the wall. "You wanna know what we're up against – here it is."

Kamek's jaw dropped as a picture of the doomship that had carried the Timulator on Earth popped-up. It was taken from slightly above the ship – presumably from one of the skyscrapers ringing Central Park, over which the craft was hovering.

"This is probably one of many such ships. We know she could turn invisible, and look at those missile launchers – have you ever seen anything like them?" Griggs moved his fingers over a panel of Bullet Bill launchers. Travali nodded obediently – he had studied that photo himself for years, but Griggs never tired of presenting it. The project was top-secret, though: according to the records, there were no aliens and the invasion force had never been constructed, much less sailed through a portal in the Bermuda Triangle. Needless to say, Griggs had a limited pool of audience members. "Who knows what damage she could've done if she had fired, but we think she experienced some technical malfunctions…" Griggs tapped a button on his controller and a picture of the doomship wreathed in electricity came up. "If channeled, our scientists say that electricity could've powered all of New York for hours – if not days – and the readings given off when the ship disappeared after that are off the scale."

Travali shook his head. "Cloaking technology – Gene Roddenberry would be over the moon if he saw this!"

"Who?"

"The creator of _Star Trek_," grinned Travali. "Come on, Dave, haven't you ever watched _Star Trek_?"

"No," said Griggs. "And this is hardly an appropriate time to go blabbering on about some cheesy show."

"The new installments are good," shrugged Travali. "Besides, we both know all this already. I wanna hear about _new_ intel."

Griggs seemed to ignore his colleague as he sullenly hit some more buttons, bringing up an old aerial image of Antarctica. Kamek had to keep from moaning as the screen zoomed in on the castle planted in the snow. "We used computer imaging to get a better idea of what this base looked like."

"Before it got up and flew away," added Travali. "Have we figured out where it went, yet?"

"It went here, and it came from here," Griggs waved his hand. "This alien world beyond the Bermuda Triangle! Just like all the superstitious wackos have been saying all these years."

"Must've been some castle – you'd think all those fancy turrets and things'd get snapped off in that vortex…" Travali shook his head. "I'm still woozy from it."

"We had to make all these ships from scratch to make sure we could make the trip," said Griggs, running a hand along the wood paneling of his ready room lovingly before snapping back to his usual, angry self. "A mission nine years in the making – a preemptive strike on the aliens. We'll go down in history!"

"Just like Captain Kirk," muttered Travali with another wry smile.

"What's that, Travali?"

"I'm surprised they haven't tried invading us in the meantime, sir," said Travali loudly. "They should've seen we were easy pickin's."

"I'll pretend I never heard that, Admiral," snapped Griggs. "In the meantime, you can return to the _Harding_ and send over those Hornets. We'll be splitting up soon – you'll be going south, while I take the _Taylor_ group and attack the continent to the northwest. The radar-generated map displayed on the computer screen was rough, but there was no mistaking the Alligator Archipelago and the Mushroom Continent. Before long, Griggs would be at the shores of Dark Land, and Kamek had to beat him there – he had to warn Kammy.

"So you _do_ have some geographical intel," grunted Travali as he got to his feet. "Why didn't you tell me when I asked for it, sir?"

"I wanted to make sure you remembered who we're up against," said Griggs, clicking to a final picture. It was a body – or what was left of one: fires had eaten away most of the flesh. "That was my brother. He had just joined the police force when that ship appeared, and an alien scouting on the ground attacked him. It broke his neck and burned his flesh – his face isn't even recognizable!"

"I'm sorry, sir," said Travali softly.

"When I find that alien," continued Griggs savagely. "I'll make him pay."

_You'll make _her_ pay_, thought Kamek, turning and leaving the admirals. _If only that's all they were after… I'd gladly see that Admiral Griggs empty a few shots into the Koopa Queen_. Kamek sighed as he slid through the outer hull of the ship. He knew something like this would happen the moment Bowser decided to go to Earth after Bowselta. _If only they had listened…_ The Mushroom World was about to be invaded, and unlike what happened 200 years ago, there was no hope of salvation. The humans were out for blood, and looking down at the black death of the weapons gleaming on the hulls of the warships, Kamek had no doubt that they would get it.


	5. North

**A/N: Bowselta's third plane finally makes an appearance in this chapter, and unlike the other two, this one's design is very precise (I even uploaded some diagrams at **ht tp: / / pics. livejournal. com/walkazo/pic/00032h9z/g1** – I really recommend you look at them). It was originally to be based on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, an American World War ****II**** daylight bomber (which I've been a fan of since childhood, thanks to the movie, **_**Memphis Belle**_**), but I soon realized the B-29 Superfortress fit my vision better. The placement of the armaments (top and belly turrets, and the waist, nose and tail-gunners) and the landing gear on Bowselta's plane still come from the B-17s, though the shape of the plane in general is pure B-29. The inner makeup of the plane is more rooted in sci-fi than real life aviation, and while much of it is original, the split-level bridge and control chair are borrowed from the spaceship **_**Eureka Maru**_**, of the aforementioned TV show, **_**Andromeda**_**. The main difference is that the pilot/captain isn't on the lowered section of the nose, but in the center of the room; the fact that there are two stations ahead of the captain is more akin to **_**Star Trek**_**. The plane's in-story description is actually spread out between this chapter and some later installments, but I thought I'd get all the Disclaimer-y stuff over with now.**

Chapter 4: North

Unaware of the danger bearing down upon their kingdom, the Koopas set off for northern Dark Land the morning after Bowser's discovery in the Permanent Records Room. Usually Bowselta would have taken a couple days to make sure all their affairs were in order before taking off, but the prospect of seeing her old friend Emerald again made her as recklessly excited as her family. Leaving Kammy behind to watch the kingdom and deal with the paperwork, Bowser, Bowselta and the Koopalings flew out on the _7-Koopa-7_ without a second thought.

The _Seven_ was the largest of the three planes Bowselta had designed while she and Bowser were still dating, but since then, it had been given countless upgrades as newer and better technology was developed. The _Seven_ was made to transport the entire Koopan royal family (even back then, Bowselta knew she'd be having a large brood of children and that the _KoopaCord_ and _Mark __II_ would be outgrown by her family before too long), so it was big, fast and dangerous. The plane's body was three meters (about ten feet) across, slightly taller than that, and over twenty meters long, with a thirty-meter (ninety-foot) wingspan. The _Seven_'s cruising speed was around 600 km/h (370 mph), though its four jet engines could produce enough thrust to double that in a pinch. Despite Bowselta's aversion to guns, the _Seven_ was outfitted with seven sets of manually operated lasers positioned around the hull, as well as forward-facing Gyra launchers (operated by Bowselta, the pilot) and a limited supply of Bullet Bills that could be shot out the back. Since there were few Koopan ships fast enough to escort the _Seven_, all the armament was a necessary defense; each Koopaling had been trained in at least one position on the plane, so they didn't even need accompanying soldiers to protect themselves.

The ship was powered by raw energy contained and regulated within the engine room, which was located in the _7-Koopa-7_'s aft, before the fuselage started tapering off in the tail. Iggy and Ludwig tended to the engine in shifts during the four-hour flight, while Junior monitored it from his station in the nose of the plane. Morton sat beside Junior in the lowered area of the bridge, manning the communications and navigation array. Bowselta sat behind and above them in the center of the open-concept bridge, half of which was enclosed in a greenhouse-like structure of glass and scaffolding, giving the pilot a clear view of the world before, beside and above her. The only thing below the plane for most of the flight were the clouds of Dark Land, as they flew through the open air beneath the sun. Snow-capped mountaintops began poking through the canopy as they passed into the Arctic Circle, into the region of Dark Land that was a territory of the Koopa Kingdom only in name. There were no train tracks this far north, and only a few roads snaked through the glacier-clad mountains, and so, as the clouds below them dissipated, the Koopas were greeted with the sight of an unspoiled wonderland stretching out beneath them and the eternal summer sun.

Bowselta brought the plane closer to the ground as they neared their destination, so that the tiny town of Westpole wouldn't be lost amidst its surroundings. It was one of only three settlements in the arctic, and though it was the largest, it consisted of a mere twenty-two buildings, nestled between a group of mountains backed by a large, flowing glacier. As the _Seven_ came in for a landing on the tiny "airstrip" (which was little more than a clear stretch of compacted snow), a few townspeople came out to watch. It was a little difficult, as the strip was meant for planes less than half the _7-Koopa-7_'s size, but Bowselta had the plane safely on the ground in no time.

Outside, the air was brisk, and many of the Koopalings suppressed shivers as Bowser and Bowselta wasted no time in leading the family away from the plane. After the _Seven_ landed, most of the onlookers had scuttled away, and only a pair of old White Clubbas remained as the Koopas walked up to them.

"Welcome to Westport," said the one on the right, his cracked lips parting into a toothy smile as the Koopas approached. "I'm Hugga and this is my wife, Tabitha."

"Call me Tabba – nice to meet you," smiled the female Clubba.

Without waiting for the Koopas to respond, Hugga continued his speech. "We don't usually get visitors – and never in an aircraft so grand!"

"If we had known, we would've had the young'ns clear out a bit more runway – make your lives easier," Tabba beamed. "No harm done, though."

"Yeah, well, taking-off again might be more of a challenge," frowned Bowselta, looking back at the shining red plane and its snowy runway dubiously.

"Oh, then we will _of course_ get some fellows right on the runway!" the old woman chuckled. "We used to run this airstrip ourselves, but maintenance work needs younger bones."

"Tell us – how long will you be staying? It may take a couple days to get the strip prepared, but we have more than enough food and space to house you." Hugga gestured at the barn-like structure behind him. "Ours is the largest building in Westpole – most of it's taken up by the airplane hangar, but there's lots of guestrooms and a kitchen…"

"We'd have to cook our own food?" frowned Bowser. "We're the Koopan _royal family_ – we don't do our own cooking."

The Clubbas' eyes widened. "Really?" gasped Tabba. "The King and Queen…?"

"What brings you to Westpole, m'lords?" asked Hugga, ringing his hands sycophantically.

"We're looking for the Dragon-Koopas that live here," said Bowselta at once. "The Lakipas – where do they live?"

The Clubbas paled. After shooting a nervous glance at his wife, Hugga cleared his throat. "Um, they- they don't live in the village. They live up the mountain."

"Which one?" asked Bowselta sharply, looking around at the surrounding peaks, none of which bore signs of habitation.

"I uh, I'm not sure, exactly…" said the Clubba, rubbing the back of his head.

Bowselta's eyes narrowed. He was lying.

"Well, who _is _sure, _exactly_?" scowled Bowser. "My wife – the _Queen_ – is an old family friend, and we came all this way to see the Lakipas."

"If you're worried we mean them harm, I can assure you that isn't the case," added Bowselta. "They left the Koopa Kingdom because Morton Koopa stripped them of their power and made them aliens in their own home, but we're here to rectify that."

"R- really?" asked Hugga.

Bowselta nodded. "Really."

The Clubbas sighed with relief. Hugga then spoke up. "We're sorry for being so cautious, Your Majesties, but after hearing about the old regime, we were a little fearful for our friends' safety."

"Regrettably, living in isolation breeds a little paranoia," said Tabba, with an apologetic grimace.

"Yes yes," said Bowselta impatiently. "Now, which mountain are they living on?"

The man pointed past the Koopas to the largest mountain. "They live about halfway up Mt. McUbba, on the north-east face. They overlook the glacier to their right, and down on the village to their left."

"It's a lovely view," smiled Tabba. "Though we haven't flown up there in ages."

"Is flying the only way to get up there?" Again, Bowselta looked doubtfully at the _7-Koopa-7_. "I suppose we could land it on the glacier…"

"Oh, no need, no need," said Tabba. "There's a path that heads up there. They're always coming and going up it with their snowmobiles."

"The daughter was just in town, actually – picking up supplies for the other snowmobile." This looked like news to Tabba as well, so her husband explained: "Ted from the garage told me when I was picking up our radio." He then felt the need to elaborate on that for the Koopas: "We're hoping to actually pick up signals from the south now – all we were getting before the tune-up was music from the way-station at Frozen Cove-"

"How long ago was Emerald here?" demanded Bowselta, ignoring the fact that excessive rudeness was probably a bad first impression for the King and Queen of the Koopas to leave the citizens of Westpole with.

"Huh? Oh, Ted told me not long ago – so it must've been shortly before noon."

"How long does it take to get back to the cave by snowmobile?"

"Less than an hour, I should think," mused Tabba.

"And by foot?"

"A couple hours at most, but it all depends on the weather."

"We won't be able to catch her by foot," muttered Bowselta, turning to her family. "But will anyone object if we set out now anyway?"

"No!" chorused the Koopalings and Bowser.

"Oh, wait a minute!" said Hugga, holding up his hands. "I heard there's gonna be a storm later today."

"How much later?" frowned Bowselta.

"Um, Arnie told me it wouldn't until be later this afternoon, but the little guy looks on the bright side of life a little _too_ literally, if you know what I mean?"

"Not really."

"What Hugga _means_ is that Arnie usually says the sunshine's going to last longer than it really does…" Tabba smiled sadly. "You'd be best to wait until it's over – at this time of year, storms only last a couple hours anyway."

"I think we'll be fine," said Junior. "I saw the storm on our radar – it was still far away and it wasn't coming at us very fast."

"Good enough for me," smiled Bowselta, leading her family away from the old Clubbas.

Tabba frowned after them, but Hugga patted her arm. "They'll be alright. Now, let's get back inside: the radio beckons!"

"Of course – but before we start with the southern music, let's check the weather report first."

"If you insist…"

-xxx-

Barely half an hour (and a quarter of a mountain) later, the storm hit. The Koopas were enveloped in swirling wings, blinding snow, and with the sun hidden behind the clouds, the temperature dropped even further. But Bowselta refused to turn back, and the group continued to struggle upwards, protected from hypothermia by their fiery dragon blood.

"I thought you said the storm wasn't coming very fast!" yelled Wendy, wrapping her arms around herself and glaring at Junior.

"It wasn't – the radar said it wasn't coming very fast. It's not _my_ fault the technology lied," snarled Junior.

"Are you _sure_ you read it right?" Despite his wind-breaking labcoat, Iggy was also cold and irritable. "What colour was the doppler output?"

"It was dark blue – really slow."

Iggy groaned. "Dark blue is _fast-approaching_ weather."

"I thought red was the fastest?"

"It's the fastest _receding_ velocity."

"You idiot! Why does Mom even let you be the navigator if you can't even read the radar?" jeered Wendy.

"Hey shut up! I'd like to see _you_ do better," snapped Junior.

"Okay: red's coming closer, blue's going away. The deepness of the colour is how fast it is."

"Actually, different speeds are different colours," said Iggy. "After red comes orange and then yellow is the slowest, and after blue comes purple and then-"

"Whatever, it's still _easy_. Until you can get it right, I vote Ludwig goes back to navigator duties."

Junior was furious – he hated being surpassed by Ludwig, and Wendy knew this. "No way!"

"Yeah, that'd mean I'd have to spend the _entire_ flight in the engine room," whined Iggy.

"Whose side are you on?" pouted Wendy.

"_My_ side!"

"Hey guys!" Everyone looked to the front of the line, where Lemmy was bending over the snow. He was the only one who was perfectly happy in the blizzard conditions. His mutated feet allowed him to pick through the snow whereas everyone else (except Wendy) had to wade knee-deep in it, so he was able to walk ahead of the group and look for potential hazards along the trail. Lemmy looked back at them and pointed at the snow. "Footprints."

Bowselta, Bowser and the other Koopalings caught up to Lemmy and peered at the snowshoe tracks before him. "Dey must be fresh or dey'd be buried by now," observed Roy. "Has dere been any more tracks?"

"Just the groove carved by the snowmobile."

"There shouldn't be a groove," frowned Iggy. "The tracks were barely visible before the blizzard even started, and the snow's a food deeper now…"

"Maybe Emerald's snowmobile broke down and she's been dragging it up?" proposed Bowselta. "If it's behind her, it'd run over her footprints. There's a bend in the path here, so maybe she ended up pulling it around in a tighter curve than she herself took."

"Makes sense," grunted Roy, as various other Koopalings nodded in agreement.

"If we hurry, maybe we can catch her and giver her a hand," said Bowselta.

"Good, then the fact that Junior got us stuck in a blizzard will do us some good after-all," huffed Wendy.

"_Shut up!_"

-xxx-

A few bends higher up the path, Crystal Lakipa was getting tired. The mountain's slope was very steep by this point, so the path had to zig-zag in order to be passable, though even these were awful steep at times. Having just scaled a particularly nasty stretch, Crystal reached back and flipped a switch on the dashboard, which lowered the snowmobile's treads to secure it in the snow. It was easier to pull the machine when it was only sliding along on its skids, though it meant that if Crystal's grip on the rope slipped, her ride could go shooting back down the path – and off the nearest cliff.

She sat down in the snow, protected from the cold by her full-length parka. She had lived in Westpole all her life, but unlike her mother, Emerald, the fire inside of her was not enough to keep her warm. Still, she liked it in the arctic, and if her legs weren't aching from hauling the snowmobile for the past hour, she'd be perfectly fine with the storm. She cursed herself for forgetting gas – _again_. She looked down at the bottom of the slope, where the path snaked around a big black boulder; Crystal called it "the Mailbox" because it signaled the final stretch of the path leading back home. Unfortunately, that stretch was also the steepest part of the journey, and that first hill had nearly done Crystal in. She considered bringing the snowmobile back down the hill, parking it next to the Mailbox and just walking the last stretch herself, but she knew Emerald would be furious…

Crystal sighed and stayed rooted to the spot, mulling her predicament over and over again. She had finally decided to leave the snowmobile, but still lug the groceries up the mountain (as a peace offering for Emerald), when she heard voices below her. Crystal's breath caught in her throat. _Who would be crazy enough to come up here during a blizzard? … Who would follow me up here?_ The paranoid young Dragon-Koopa paled, and slowly crawled along the ground to peak over the edge of the path. Her pursuers were only one level below her, and Crystal got a good look at them (or at least as good as she could expect with so much snow flying through the air) – nine large, spike-shelled koopas, and one more, smaller koopa as well. _Dragon-Koopas?_ Thought Crystal. _No – impossible. They must be Spiked Clubbas_…

Scooting forward for a better look, Crystal accidentally knocked a piece of snow free from her path. She hoped they wouldn't notice or worry about it, but as soon as he saw it out of the corner of his eye, Roy turned and looked up at the cliff. Crystal was wearing a hood and a scarf, so her face was totally obscured from sight, but Roy's wasn't, and she gasped as she realized he was a Dragon-Koopa after all.

"Hey!" he shouted, causing his companions to stop and look up as well. Now Crystal had ten strange Dragon-Koopas staring up at her, and she bolted.

"Wait, Emerald stop!" called Bowselta as she, Bowser and the Koopalings turned and dashed towards the Mailbox.

_They know Mum_, thought Crystal, stopping cold in her tracks beside the snowmobile as her heart hammered in fear. All she could think of was the stories Emerald had told her about King Morton Koopa and how he had stabbed his species in the back – how he had driven his own mother and his sisters out of Dark Land with the rival royal families. And once rumours that he even had the Dragon-Koopas _killed_ by Kremlings started filtering up from the south, the Lakipas had grown even more fearful of him and his legacy. After all, the Lakipas could have easily been on those ill-fated ships as well. The only reason they didn't go out to sea was because of Emerald's grandparents and their protective Lakitu disciples, but here in the north, there was no one to protect the last two Lakipas but themselves.

Crystal lunged for the snowmobile, punching the treads' "retract" button and pushing the machine back towards the crest of the hill as Lemmy appeared around the corner at its bottom. If Morton's son and his companions (who else could the Dragon-Koopas be?) had come to finish the job, Crystal wasn't going down without a fight.

By the time the rest of the Koopas appeared, Lemmy was less than halfway up the slope, and the snowmobile was just starting its way down as Crystal gave it a final shove. Lemmy yelped as the machine raced towards him. He leapt into the air and almost cleared the snowmobile as it passed underneath him, however he didn't catch enough air time and ended up planting his right foot on the nose of the machine, upsetting both of them. While the Koopaling careened face-first into the snow, the vehicle's front end was forced to the left, and when it reached the bottom of the hill – and the rest of the Koopas – it was perpendicular to the path.

Bowselta, Wendy, Ludwig and Larry all threw themselves out of harm's way, while Bowser and Roy met the snowmobile head-on, using their strength to bring the machine to a stop before it careened off the far side of the bend. Iggy, Morton and Junior watched in horror from the shadow of the Mailbox as Bowser and Roy were ploughed to within a meter of the sheer cliff behind them. As soon as it had stopped moving, Roy vaulted over the snowmobile and ran towards the cliff across from the Mailbox.

-x-

Crystal hadn't lingered to see what happened to her snowmobile, but even with her head start, Lemmy was gaining on her.

"We mean you no harm! We're friends!" beseeched Lemmy.

_Yeah right_, thought Crystal. A small voice at the back of her head told her that she should consider listening to the Dragon-Koopas, but she figured she was in too deep to change tactics now. Lemmy was only a few steps behind Crystal; she couldn't escape him, so the only way she stood a chance was if he finally caught up to her on her own terms.

Without warning, Crystal stopped running, jabbing the heels of her snowshoes deep into the ground to bring herself to an immediate halt and then jumping backwards towards her pursuer. Lemmy was taken aback once more, only his feet didn't provide enough traction to stop him in time and he smacked right into Crystal's spiked shell. Both Dragon-Koopas landed on their backs in the snow, but Crystal immediately sprang back to her feet and continued running, while Lemmy rolled onto his side, clutching his belly in pain.

Having forgotten how thick Dragon-Koopa belly scales were, Crystal convinced herself that she had seriously gored her pursuer, and grew more and more panicky about what would happen when she was inevitably caught. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she mentally cursed herself, over and over, for everything she had done. For hurting her pursuer, for pushing the snowmobile down the hill, for running away, for knocking that bit of snow off the cliff, for forgetting the damn gas…

Suddenly, a ferocious roar echoed from above Crystal's head, and she looked up just in time to see Roy dive towards her from the next level of the path. The girl screamed and swerved sideways to avoid the Koopaling, but the shockwave he generated when he landed was enough to knock her off her feet. He then lunged towards her as she stumbled, and before she knew what had happened, Crystal found herself sunken in the snow, flat on her back with Roy sitting astride of her stomach, mercilessly pinning her arms on either side of her head. The snow was too deep for her to see anything besides Roy, snarling down at her.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed, tears welling in her eyes. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your friend! I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please! I'm sorry!" Crystal was sobbing uncontrollably, convinced she had sealed her death warrant for what she had done that day and hoping against hope the Dragon-Koopas would take pity on her.

Roy watched her, at a loss for what to do next. Soon the rest of the Koopas reached the scene, with Bowselta in the lead. Crystal's scarf had fallen away, and her hood was flopped back away from her face, revealing short, spiky green-tipped yellow hair, and matching skin, as the girl's mustard-hued juvenile scales gave way to green adult colouration. The blotchy complexion meant she was only sixteen.

"Get off her, Roy." The Koopaling did as he was told, moving out of the way as Bowselta crouched down beside Crystal, who pushed herself into a sitting position, hugging her knees and staring at Bowselta with bloodshot, orange eyes. "Who are you?"

"C- Crystal," sniffed the youngster. "I'm so sorry! Please don't kill me! I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay," said Bowselta gently. "We shouldn't have chased you."

"Besides," smiled Lemmy, standing behind Bowselta. "No harm done!" He lightly patted his stomach in an attempt to ease Crystal's worries, glad the bruising hadn't become visible to the eye yet.

"I'm sorry," repeated Crystal. "I thought you were going to hurt me – and my mum."

"Emerald Lakipa?"

Crystal turned back to Bowselta and nodded. "How do you know her?"

"We were friends," explained Bowselta. "We were pen-pals and my family visited her family at least once a year – then they visited us before coming up here. It was probably a bigger deal for me than her, so she might not have mentioned anything about it, but my name's Bowselta-"

"Bowselta?" repeated Crystal, realization slowly replacing the fear in her face. "Bowselta _Parakay_?"

The Queen of the Koopas nodded.

"Mum _has_ mentioned you – she talks you a lot, actually, whenever she tells me about her life in the south. She'll be so happy to see you!" Crystal's face fell. "Oh… Now I'm _really_ sorry I attacked you."

"These things happen," said Lemmy. "Besides – it's not the first time I've impaled myself on someone's shell. We've had many a tag game end very badly back home."

Crystal smiled weakly. "But still, I'm sorry."

"We heard you the first ten times – can we please get a move-on, it's _freezing_ out here!" whined Junior.

Bowselta rolled her eyes and turned to Bowser, Ludwig and Roy. "Can one of you guys go back and get the snowmobile while we continue on?"

"Sure," shrugged Roy.

"I'll go too," added Ludwig.

"It wasn't wrecked?" said Crystal, her face brightening.

"Nope, we stopped it before it went off the cliff," said Bowser. "But, uh, I'm with Junior – can we _get going_ already?"

Bowselta rolled her eyes again as she helped pull Crystal to her feet. "_Yes_, we're _going_…"

"So… are you two… _married_?" Crystal looked from Bowser (who else could it be?) to Bowselta quizzically as she fixed her scarf and hood.

"Yep," said Bowselta, setting off along the path.

"So… that makes you the Queen of the Koopas?"

"Yep."

Crystal grinned. _Mum's never gonna believe this…_


	6. Too Late

Chapter 5: Too Late

It took a couple of hours, but by lunchtime, Kammy had finished all the paperwork. All the meetings were postponed without issue, all the Koopalings' chores were redistributed, all the borders were secure and everything was running smoothly. After looking over a report from the Northern Fortress (the military drills, castle maintenance, and the testing of the latest fleet of airships were all underway without a hitch), Kammy was done for the day. With a contented sigh, she shuffled over to Bowser's throne and made herself comfortable. However, she had barely read two pages of her current novel, _Breathless in Birabuto_, when her perfect world was irreparably shattered.

"Kammy!"

The old witch jumped and looked up as her twin brother materialized in the Throne Room. "Kamek! What in the world-"

"We're about to be invaded!" announced Kamek, as he soared up the hall towards the throne.

"I guess I should've known you'd turn up the moment Her Hatedness was out of the building, eh? You're so predictable," Kammy chuckled, having missed Kamek's dire warning. Though she often visited her ghostly brother in his Donkey Kong Island hideout, she never expected to see Kamek come to _her_, and she was too bemused to be concerned.

The undead Magikoopa growled in frustration as he floated up to his sister. "I said, _we're about to be invaded_, stupid! Pay attention!"

"My, my, haven't we gotten cranky in that cave. And you wonder why I only come down once or twice a year!"

If Kamek had corporeal hands, he'd be shaking his sister silly. "WE'RE BEING INVADED!"

"I heard you the first time – and you're wrong. All the borders are secure – you have to just face the facts that you can't predict the future anymore. That stuff's for the living."

"I didn't _predict_ it! …Unless you count all the _unheeded_ warnings I've been making all these years…" Kamek muttered.

Kammy rolled her eyes. "Saying 'I told you so' only works when you actually tell me something."

"But I _did_!" moaned Kamek. "We're being _invaded_ by humans!"

Kammy shook her head. "The Mario Bros. aren't-"

"I'm not talking about the _Mario Bros._ I'm talking about a fleet of humans from _Earth_."

"Earth_?_" Kammy frowned. "That's impossible – if something came through the portal, the Brooklyn Portal Observation Authority would've-"

"That place has been empty for _months_."

"Then how do _you_ know what's been coming through the portal?"

"I've _seen_ it," hissed Kamek ominously. "There's at least two dozen warships heading this way as of early this morning. I listened to their Admiral telling his second-in-command about their mission: they're an invasion force meant to stop us from attacking Earth again."

"'_Again_'? What 'again'? We've never attacked Earth!"

"They saw the castle in Antarctica, and the Timulator Doomship, and Koopa knows what else! Don't you see, I _knew_ this would happen – and it's all because of _her_!" Kamek pointed at Bowselta's empty throne, shaking with rage.

Kammy also bristled at the comment. "Now look here, Kamek! This is not Her Innocentness' fault-"

"Yes it is!"

"No it isn't!"

"Yes it is!"

"No it isn't!"

"Um, excuse me…" The bickering siblings turned to find Spiky Tom pushing open the hallway door. "We have a problem."

"_Humans?_"

Tom frowned at Kamek. "Um… we're not… sure. We just got a message from Burt's Cove. It seems they've picked up something on their radar-"

"A fleet of ships?"

The old Koopatrol nodded. At first he had been a little surprised to see Kamek, but now he was starting to suspect the ex-Magikoopa was speaking to Kammy for the same reason he was. "At least a dozen ships, probably more."

Kamek turned to Kammy with a smug look on his translucent face. "See? I told you we were being invaded."

"You don't have to sound so pleased about it," huffed the witch, before turning back to Spiky Tom. "How long ago did the ships appear on radar?"

"About tenish – at first they just thought it was a merchant fleet, so they didn't pay much attention. Then, when the fleet got a little closer, they were able to distinguish one _really _big ship-"

"That'd be the aircraft carrier, the _USS Zachary Taylor_," said Kamek, who had read the ship's name off her hull as he started his flight to Dark Land early that same morning – though it felt like he had overheard the Admirals' conversation a lifetime ago.

"Been doing some spying, have ya?" Tom grinned. He and Kamek had always gotten along during their long years of service together in Koopa Castle.

Kammy crossed her arms. "Well, even if they are your humans, who's to say we can't reason with them?"

"Burt's Cove's been trying to radio them for the past hour, with no response."

"Oh really? And why haven't they tried radioing _us_? Hmm?" Kammy scowled: Burt's Cove was never the most reliable station.

"A lot of funny stuff goes down in Kremling waters," explained Tom, scowling at Kammy. "They make a log of everything and submit reports, but the protocol says they should only contact us when ships enter our waters."

"So they should be passing Dinosaur Land about now," said Kammy, making a mental note to change the protocol. "What's the radio chatter from there like?"

"We're checking it out now."

Kammy nodded. "Okay, I'm gonna go up to Communications to see it all for myself and send a message to Their Unawarenesses-"

Suddenly, the door behind Spiky Tom burst open and a breathless Koopa Troopa came running in, a paper clutched in his hand.

"Yoshi's Island!" he gasped. "It's under attack."

"What?" gasped Tom and Kammy.

The Koopa hurriedly explained that the normal radio transmissions from the island had suddenly been replaced by garbled cries for help. They had some Magikoopas look at the island with their Crystal Balls, and all they saw was fire, with thunder roaring in the cloudless sky as Yoshis everywhere panicked and died.

"Humans are ruthless," said Kamek coldly. "They'll show no mercy to their enemies, even if they're a bunch of Yoshi simpletons."

A second Koopa Troopa appeared. "The fleet has passed Dinosaur Land."

"Already?" Kammy paled. "Koopa, they move fast."

"They didn't linger at Yoshi's Island. The Magikoopas were able to see planes flying overhead – returning to their ships."

"To your aircraft carrier," Tom raised an eyebrow at Kamek, though the gesture was hidden in the shadow of his Koopatrol helmet.

"They'll be headed for us next," said Kamek. "And then the Mushroom Kingdom. They'll bomb as much of the land as they can from the fleet, and who knows what they'll do next."

Kammy pulled out her broom. "We can't let that happen. Tom, mobilize the soldiers – and not just the ones here. Send out an alarm to all of Dark Land: we won't be taken by surprise like the Yoshis. Warn the Mushroom Kingdom as well. I'm still gonna try talking to the humans-"

"It's not going to work," said Kamek bitterly. "You'd have better luck telling everyone to evacuate the cities before they're all leveled. We'll never beat them-"

"Is that why you came? To tell us to just run away?" Kammy mounted her broom and rose into the air.

"I came here to warn you-" began Kamek.

"We just lost contact with Burt's Cove!" a third Koopa Troopa had just appeared. Without waiting for an explanation, without even expressing her surprise that the human planes had flow so far ahead of their fleet, Kammy darted through the doors as they swung shut behind the messenger.

"…Evidently, I was too late." Sighed the ghost.

Spiky Tom paid Kamek one last piteous look before following Kammy's lead and rushing off to Communications, the messengers hot on their Chief's heels.


	7. Seeing Green

Chapter 6: Seeing Green

It took the troop of Dragon-Koopas another hour to scale the last few turns of the mountain, and the winds often made conversation impossible. Crystal was able to communicate the basics: her mother and her parents had lived in Westpole ever since they left southern Dark Land, but because of the locals' overprotective paranoia about King Morton's anti-Dragon-Koopa legacy, they had often been "protected" by any sort of officials that visited the city. When Brank Hammerko showed up, it was only a matter of time for him and Emerald to become mates, but he and the elder Lakipas had been killed in an avalanche shortly after Crystal was laid. Emerald was holed up her family's cave, alone, for months, since the egg would freeze if she left it or took it out of the meagre shelter the cave provided. Once Crystal hatched, Emerald was able to take the time to dig them out of their snowy prison and stagger to Westpole, where the townsfolk did everything they could to help the pair. That was when they truly vowed to protect the Dragon-Koopas: their survival was a Koopa-given miracle, and to let it go to waste would be blasphemy.

With a note of apology in her voice, Crystal explained that their current home had been dug so high in the mountainside because Emerald did not want to risk getting snowed-in again. "It's a long hike, but I agree with Mum – I wouldn't want to be trapped." Crystal shivered at the thought. "I'm kinda sensitive to the cold…"

"Then why didn't you come back south?" asked Bowselta, taking advantage of the rare lull in the wind to get some decent conversation in.

Crystal shrugged. "Well… it's nice here: the people are kind, and it's very peaceful. No offence, but we've heard lots of terrible things have happened in the south. I'd rather be a little chilly than be in the middle of a war…" Crystal then smiled good-naturedly. "I'd also miss the sunshine too much down in _Dark_ Land!"

-xxx-

The Koopas reached the cave at around three in the afternoon, gratefully clustering into the outer chamber and shaking the snow out of their hair and off their scales. Emerald's snowmobile was pulled up alongside one of the walls, next to a disorganized pile of tools and spare parts; the other wall sported a few shelves stocked with frozen food reserves, including a few macabre racks of bloody meat. Once everyone was relatively free of snow, Crystal took a deep breath and pulled open the door leading inside.

"Um, Mum…?"

"It's about time!" snapped Emerald, though there was a playfulness belying the edge in her voice.

Bowselta, Bowser and the Koopalings silently followed Crystal into what looked like a living room. There was a fire crackling in a hearth surrounded by a couple chairs and a sagging couch to the left, with the right wall covered with shelves – but unlike the outside chamber, these were filled with books, pictures and nick-knacks instead of canned foods. A closed door directly across from them seemed to lead to the kitchen, where they could hear Emerald rummaging around. A second doorway, this one ajar, led into a darkened dining room.

"Um, you'll never guess wh-"

"You ran out of gas again, didn't you?" interrupted Emerald from the other room. "Honestly, I've told you a _thousand times_ what a mess that makes of the fuel injectors. I swear, you're gonna be the one fixing the-" Emerald stopped cold as she pushed open the kitchen door and saw that her daughter wasn't alone. There was a moment of silence as the Dragon-Koopas took each other in. Emerald's eyes flashed between the Koopalings, Bowser and Bowselta, all of which got a good long look at their stunned host. She was slightly taller and curvier than Bowselta, with bright green scales and piercing yellow eyes. Her hair was similar in colour to Crystal's, though the green tipping the yellow was a slightly darker hue, and while her daughter's short locks hung all around her face like drapery, Emerald sported a devil-may-care mullet. The Koopalings had the distinct impression that if she had ears, they'd be pierced all the way around.

Emerald shook he head in disbelief, a grin spreading across her face as she locked eyes with Bowselta. "No way! No freakin' way!"

Bowselta nodded, also grinning. "Yes way!"

"I can't believe it!" Emerald rushed over to Bowselta, wrapping her in a bear hug. "Oh man! I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Yeah. It's been what? Forty years?"

"Almost," nodded Emerald, pulling back and looking Bowselta up and down at arm's length. "Heh, you're a bit taller than last time – and sexier too. Whoo-ee!"

"Yeah, growing up will do that too ya," chuckled Bowselta sheepishly, crossing her arms in front of her chest self-consciously.

Emerald smirked, releasing Bowselta and looking around at her family, soon settling her gaze on Bowser. "Oh no," she said, her eyes widening. "Don't tell me! You didn't- This isn't-"

"King Bowser Koopa?" The burly Koopa grinned. "Oh, but I am! And she did! And before you ask, yes, these are our kids – all eight of 'em."

Emerald rolled her eyes. "I _told_ you not to tell me!" She turned to Bowselta. "And _you_! I thought you hated this guy's guts! What could _possibly_ have possessed you to freakin' marry him and pop out _eight_ of his bloody children?"

Bowselta shrugged. "Again, I grew up. I realized that it wasn't Bowser's fault that his father screwed my family over, and I realized it was wrong of my parents to tell me otherwise."

"They are a bit fanatical aren't they? What did _they_ have to say about your change of heart?"

"Nothing. They died a couple months after you guys went north," said Bowselta frankly.

"Oh," said Emerald, her smile faltering. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, well, these things happen. Crystal told me about what happened to your family…"

"Mmm," Emerald nodded thoughtfully and looked over at Crystal, who had taken the opportunity to slip off to the side and pull off her parka. She was wearing a thin sky blue dress that reached her knees, and matching pants that pooled around her feet, with only her painted purple toenails sticking out. Her fingernails were painted red, and combined with the natural colours of her scales, hair, eyes and shell (which the Koopas now saw was yellow), she had every colour of the rainbow covered. Emerald, whose shell was lime green, was much more duo-chromatic, having forgone makeup, jewelry and clothes long ago. She and Crystal did share one more thing in common, though: their front fangs protruded from between their closed, pale burgundy lips.

Catching her daughter's eye, Emerald grinned. "That reminds me – sorry for assuming you ran out of gas. I didn't even consider that you might've been late because you were bringing guests."

Crystal looked at the floor and blushed. "Actually, I _did_ run out of gas – they caught up to me at the Mailbox."

Emerald blinked, before laughing. "That's my girl! But I'm still proud of you for showing them the way up – instead of running for dear life like when that Census Star came calling last December. That was hilarious!"

Crystal's face was even more flushed now, the copper in the dragon blood beneath the surface turning her cheeks dark as she stammered out the rest of her confession. "Well, actually… I did, sorta… run away… They caught up to me. Well, he did-" Crystal nodded her head at Lemmy, who raised a hand to help Emerald identify who her daughter was singling out. "-and I sorta rammed him but then _he_ caught me before I could go much further." Crystal looked over her shoulder at Roy, who was hanging back by the door, before turning to her mother. "But then Bowselta explained who they were, and everything was fine from then on…" Crystal smiled weekly.

Emerald shook her head in bemused disbelief. "You're one crazy kid." She then started walked towards Lemmy. "So she nailed you, huh? With what, her horns? Shell?"

"Shell," said Lemmy. "But it's okay – us Koopalings play rough and I've been impaled plenty of times. We heal quickly and it doesn't hurt at-" Lemmy was cut off as Emerald jabbed her finger into one of the faintly discolored blotches on his belly, causing him to wince painfully.

"'Doesn't hurt at all', eh? I'll give you this, Bowselta, your kids are no sissies." She grabbed Lemmy by the wrist. "But why suffer when you can be healed? Come on, I've got stuff to stop the bruising."

"Huh?" Lemmy leaned against Emerald's pull, his own face flushing: his siblings would never let him live it down if he consented to this special treatment. "No, really, I'm fine."

"Don't be silly, you'll regret turning me down in the morning when you've got three rows of ugly bruising down your belly. It's better to get it early." Emerald wasn't as built as Bowselta, but she was still strong, and managed to yank poor, willowy Lemmy forward.

Bowselta laughed. "There's no arguing with Emerald, Lemmy, just go with it."

"But I-"

"Listen to your mother," chided Emerald, wrapping her other hand around Lemmy's snout to keep him from protesting further as she hauled him out of the room. The Koopalings sniggered.

Crystal was blushing again. "Mum's really into medicine."

"She always was," smiled Bowselta. "She hasn't changed a bit…"

"Oh…" Bowselta expected Crystal to go on, but at a loss for anything interesting to say, girl had fallen into silence.

After an awkward pause, Bowser spoke up. "So, shall we?" He indicated towards the kitchen door, which had swung closed behind Lemmy and Emerald.

"The kitchen's not big enough for everyone," warned Crystal.

"We can stay out here," said Iggy. "You go and catch up with your friend, and we'll get to know Crystal out here." He shot the younger girl a toothy grin, which she shyly returned, looking around at the assembled Dragon-Koopas.

"Sounds good to me," said Bowser, walking over to the kitchen door with Bowselta at his side.

Ludwig looked from the kitchen to his siblings. "Um, I sink I'll go vit zem for now. It looks like you'll have enough Koopalings on your hands visout Lemmy and I for now. Okay?"

Crystal shrugged. She was quiet by nature, but after growing up with nothing but Shy Guys for friends, most of which were a few years older than her, she was eager to finally make connections with kids her own age. The fact that they were her own species made it even more exciting, and while she was nervous to say the least, she could tell that the Koopalings were just as eager to make friends with her. Even if she kept running out of interesting things to say, she had a feeling they'd be more than willing to pick up the slack and do all the talking themselves. Despite her penchant for jumping to conclusions about anonymous strangers following her through blizzards, she was actually pretty good at reading people once she got to see them up close, and as soon as Morton started talking, she knew this was no exception.

-x-

The sight that greeted Bowser, Bowselta and Ludwig in the kitchen was a surprise. Lemmy was sitting wide-eyed on a bench with his back wedged against the wall and the cupboard bookending the seat. Beside him perched Emerald, who was holding up the foot nearest to her in rapt attention, moving his toes around so that she could watch the tendons roll over the mutated bones.

Bowser cleared his throat. "Are we interrupting something?"

Emerald looked up from Lemmy's foot to her audience. She returned her gaze to the Koopaling, sizing him up before smiling lasciviously. "It depends – you age of consent yet?"

Lemmy's eyes bugged out of his head as he shook his head in terror. "N-no!"

Emerald sighed. "Then I guess not." She let Lemmy wrench his foot free of her grasp and reached over to pick up a jar of purple goo sitting beside her on the bench. She unscrewed the lid and held it out for the Koopaling, only to grab his wrist once more as he reached forward. "But when you _do_ turn twenty – call me." She winked.

Lemmy stared at her. "…Mom, your friend scares me."

Emerald released the poor Koopaling and laughed as she stood up. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! I've always wanted to see a case of Lillyfoot, that's all." She looked from Bowselta, Bowser and Ludwig back to Lemmy, who was slapping on the purple goo as fast as he could. "Make sure to rub it in, don't just paste it on – don't make me do it for you!" The medic's warning was meant as a joke, however she then turned to Bowselta, a devious look in her yes. "Although… come to think of it, wouldn't that have been your plan all along?"

Bowselta raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Emerald grinned. "Come on – like it isn't obvious! You didn't come all this way just to say 'hi' – you had ulterior motives. Admit it!"

"I _did_ want to see you again. I have for a while, but until recently I thought you had died in the avalanche too," explained Bowselta.

Bowser nodded. "All the other Dragon-Koopas my father evicted were killed decades ago. We thought it was just us for the longest time – it was a real bummer."

Emerald nodded knowingly as she walked over and sat down in a chair next to Lemmy's bench. "Uh huh, and _then_ you discovered there were more of us. The same thing happened to my family: my parents thought we'd be all alone up here forever, but then Brank showed up. Oh, my parents didn't dare say what was on their minds, but they were thrilled with the thought that their little girl was gonna have a mate and children after all." Emerald leered at Bowselta. "There was no way you could have known I'd have a teenage daughter, ergo, you were effectively giving _me_ the run of your litter."

Bowselta shook her head hastily. "The thought didn't even cross my-"

"Pshh, don't lie." A new idea then occurred to Emerald. "Unless… You were gonna share _Bowser_…"

All the Koopas stared at Emerald; her outspokenly dirty-mindedness could make Kammy blush.

Ludwig chuckled weakly. "I'm starting agree vit Lemmy: you are a bit scary."

"What are you talking about? She's awesome!" declared Bowser as Emerald laughed. However, Bowser's own amusement was cut short when he caught sight of his wife's face. "Uh, but I would _never_ take her up on that horrible, indecent offer she just made."

"Yes, because it would be the last thing either of you did," growled Bowselta, the edges of her mouth twisting into a wry smirk.

Emerald nodded, still grinning. "Then it's settled: you'd keep Bowser, and I'd get your kiddies. Though I guess I'll have to share them with Crystal now, amirite?"

Lemmy sprang to his feet. "Well, as fun as this conversation has been, I am done my treatment, and will be going now, thank you." He hastily crammed the top of the jar back on the potion and scuttled from the room.

"I sink I'll go too…" added Ludwig, sliding out from between his parents.

-x-

In the living room, most of the other Koopalings were gathered around Crystal by the fireplace. Junior was skulking around the bookshelves and Roy was sitting next to the door, ignoring everyone else.

Crystal was proud of how well she handled the Koopaling's rapt attention, and she even managed to memorize their names… mostly. It was still a little overwhelming, and while the small brown one (_Morton_, she reminded herself, _or is it Larry?_) always jumped in when she faltered, the others seemed more interested in hearing her story than their own. The only problem was that her story wasn't very interesting. There were no boys (as Wendy had inquired); there was never any exciting discoveries (as Iggy had hoped); there was nothing. It was just Crystal and her mother living on the side of a mountain. While Emerald liked cooking and making medical concoctions to help the sick and injured townsfolk, Crystal had no real hobbies. Her only goal in life was to make friends and be nice; she mentioned the fact that she'd like to travel and be a peacemaker in the south sometime, but neglected to mention the fact that she was deathly afraid of war. That was one thing she shared with her mother: they both hated to see people suffer.

It was obvious the Koopalings weren't so sensitive. When Lemmy walked up to the group, they turned on him with a collective sneer. As much as they enjoyed Crystal's attempts to make Westpole sound interesting, it was clear that they had been _waiting_ for Lemmy to return – all the while planning on how to tear him to shreds.

"Awww, all better, are we?" snickered Wendy.

"Was it _that_ serious?" said Iggy in mock-concern.

"What kind of medicine did she use? I don't see anything on you – oh wait, it looks like there's something… Is that purple? That's weird, cuz the Medikoopas back home use purple stuff for _burn_ heals. They use green oily stuff for bruises. I think it's made of Turtley Leaves and-"

"Shut up and let him speak," said Wendy.

"She was overreacting, I'm fine," said Lemmy, trying hard not to think back to the kitchen conversation.

"You're _blushing_?" Iggy raised an eyebrow behind his goggles. "What'd she do?"

"Nothing," insisted Lemmy. Technically, it wasn't a lie – she didn't exactly _do_ anything to him…

"Then why are you blushing?" grinned Wendy.

"What was the purple stuff made of? Did it smell? Is it meant for absorption between the scales too? Maybe they use different leaves here, but it's probably the same-"

"They have Turtley Plants here," murmured Larry. He looked towards Crystal as if to ask for her confirmation, but she had taken the chance to slip away from the group and talk with the other Koopalings.

Or rather, talk to just _one_ other Koopaling.

"So… your name's Roy?"

Roy looked up as Crystal hovered nearby, peering through her hair at Roy with those watery orange eyes, as if she were afraid he might bite.

"Yep, dat's me," grunted Roy, looking back towards the kitchen door.

Crystal distractedly followed his gaze, but snapped her eyes back to his face, smiling nervously. "I always thought it was a little strange… you know, for a name. It's so short, you'd think it was a, well, a short form of a longer name. Heh, but it's not…"

"Nope," said Roy.

Silence fell between the two once more, The other Koopalings were being quite vocal about whatever had happened to Lemmy in the kitchen, but Crystal blocked it out as she suddenly realized that her comment could be taken badly. Roy was obviously not the sensitive type, but she didn't want him to get the wrong idea: "Oh, but, it's not a _bad_ name, or anything! I mean, short names are cool, right?"

Roy shrugged. "A name's a name."

"Oh, yeah! That's what I meant," Crystal winced, rubbing her arm unconsciously as she scolded herself for ever starting such a stupid conversation. _Now he's gonna think I'm a total idiot… I've gotta think of something else to talk about – something that's not stupid or boring or offensive or name-based…_ Crystal cleared her throat. "Um, well, I actually came here to thank you. Um, for dragging my snowmobile up the mountain…"

"D'was nuttin'," Roy shrugged. "I've pulled heavia 'tings around back home. And dat's widout da snow, so it's got more o' dat friction goin' on."

"Mmm, physics," nodded Crystal.

"Wut?"

Realizing Roy wasn't an intellectual (not that she was either – she barely understood her homeschool physics studies herself, and the subjects Emerald covered were rudimentary at best), Crystal quickly changed subjects. "I mean – so you like pulling things around?"

"I don't really care. I'm strong, so people have me pull 'tings for 'em." Roy shrugged once more. "It's da way 'tings work."

"So what _do_ you wanna do?" Crystal smiled, clasping her hands behind her back. _Finally, an angle to build on that's NOT totally retarded!_

"I'm gonna be da Captain o' da Guard."

"Military?" Crystal's eyes widened in despair as her hands limply fell back to her sides.

"Yep. I already help our current Chief of Homeland Security around da castle, and everyone agrees I'll make a great military head." Roy grinned, leaning forwards in his chair. "I've been payin' a lotta attention to how 'tings are run. I know what's been goin' wrong, and I'm gonna fix 'em. We ain't gonna lose no more when I'm in charge."

Crystal forced a smile. "Sounds impressive. I- I'm sure you'll be great."

"Oh, he will!" Morton appeared at Crystal's elbow. "Getting' ta know Roy, are ya? Well, you're right in that you have to come to him if you wanna talk! Ain't that right, Roy?"

Roy grunted in the affirmative as the other Koopalings clustered around Crystal once more. The older Koopaling with fluffy blue hair (who's name Crystal hadn't caught) had finally come to Lemmy's rescue and broken up the little sibling squabble about whatever happened in the kitchen, forcing them to return to Crystal for their continued entertainment.

"Roy's not much of a conversationalist," explained Wendy as she wheeled her new friend back to the warmth of the fire.

"Yeah, you won't get much more outta him," added Iggy.

"You might have more luck with Bowser Junior, though," suggested Morton, before turning and calling to his youngest brother. "Hey, BJ!"

"Whatever you want, the answer's 'no', I'm busy!"

"Aw, come on-"

Crystal didn't mind if BJ – or Junior, or whatever his name was – didn't want to talk to her. She wished Roy would, though. In spite of herself, she found him fascinating. The fact that he was involved in the military should repel her, but she found herself justifying it in her head. He wanted to _fix_ the military – and faster victories meant less casualties, so it was a good thing, right?

-x-

After the door had swing closed behind Ludwig and Lemmy, Emerald grinned. "Cute kids."

"You're gonna give them nightmares if you keep this up," joked Bowselta.

Emerald shrugged. "Can you blame me? I've been settling for Clubbas for the past seventeen years and out of the blue you drop a gaggle of foxy teenage Dragon-Koopas into my lap! It's not a nightmare, it's a dream come true!"

"Well, I'll warn you now: Lemmy's got Koopfelter's Syndrome – he's barren."

"No kiddin'? I was wondering what else he had going on with him: the Lilyfoot only explains, well, the mutant feet… Anyway, it doesn't matter to me either way, I'm not hoping to make any babies with your babies, honey – the process work's all I'm interested in."

There was another pregnant pause, once again, broken by Bowser. "For the record, _I_ didn't come here to play matchmaker."

"Neither did I," insisted Bowselta.

"Liar," said Emerald.

"So, tell us about Brank," said Bowselta, changing subjects.

Emerald grinned, stretching in her chair with a groan. "Oh, _Brank _– where to start? Well, like I said before, he showed up out of the blue. He'd been wandering around the northern reaches of Dark Land and Easton for years, staying under the radar since he heard the other Dragon-Koopas had run afoul of old King _Moron_. Er, no offence."

Bowser shrugged. "I'm no fan of my father – don't sweat it."

Emerald smiled at Bowser's good taste, and then continued. "Anyway, I was twenty-six and he was forty, so you can see that I _never_ had quibbles with age-differences when it comes to lovers – and _man_ was Brank a lover! _Who-ee_, that man knew how to please a lady! We were going at it like rabbits within months of laying eyes on each-other – he initiated everything, by the way – and it was _golden_!"

Emerald's eyes glazed over, but she soon shook herself back into the present. "We kept it on the downlo for a while, y'know, waiting until my folks were out, doing it out in the snow when no one was around – that sorta thing. But eventually Mom and Dad walked in on us… As I told you before, it's what they were hoping for, so they were _relatively_ cool with it. I still felt a bit bad, though, since they sorta caught us doing it in _their_ bed…" Emerald cleared her throat sheepishly. "We did it worse places around the cave, believe you-me, but it was a while before I could look 'em in the eye after that."

"I see you've done something about that bashfulness since then," observed Bowselta wryly.

"Honesty is the best policy. I figure it'd be worse for our relationship if I started kanoodling with your kids _without_ you knowing and then have you find out about it the hard way…" Emerald's eyes glinted mischievously. "Anyway, after that, I figured Brank and I should at least have something to show for all our… _hard work_. No one really signs those formal marriage documents up here – the only proof of commitment anyone really needs are kids, like in the olden days. So, we started trying to get pregnant. It took us a couple years, actually; the cold probably had something to do with it, since the Clubbas say they've always had problems with losing eggs too… Anyway, when Crystal's egg looked like it was gonna make it, we decided to be extra careful. I brooded it myself and everything – like a freaking Chicken!" Emerald smiled sadly. "I'm sure Crystal told you the rest: my parents got lost in a storm one night; Brank went after them while I minded the egg and well, I never saw any of the again."

"I know that feeling," said Bowser.

"We all do," nodded Bowselta, before launching into her and Bowser's story.


	8. Return to Westpole

**A/N: This chapter introduces a new type of section break that I'll be using for many of my action sequences from hereon in. Up until now I've been using "-xxxxx-" for long time skips, "-xxx-" for shorter breaks in time and/or space, and "-x-" for near-instantaneous jumps between consecutive or concurrent scenes. Now, I introduce actual text in the headers to indicate changes in space, but not time (something like it was seen way back in the prologue, only these won't be as detailed as "- Antarctica, Earth; December, 1993 -"). This style of writing makes the story flow better, since I won't have to keep using slug lines ("Meanwhile, on the moon…") to make sure you guys follow what's happening (a lot of it's pretty obvious, but clarity is important nevertheless). Unlike past stories, the upcoming action sequences are split between many characters, so while I've gotten by using the old method so far, it's not gonna cut this time around. My main inspiration for this new system was the book, **_**The Hunt for Red October**_**, by Tom Clancy, and how it used headers to flip between the multiple submarines during the climactic showdowns. Here's hoping my action bits are just as good.**

Chapter 7: Return to Westpole

Emerald listened with rapt attention as Bowser and Bowselta took turns recounting their twenty-three years together. It turned out that while Emerald knew that the Koopa prince had gotten married, was crowned King and had a bunch of children, she never bothered finding out the Queen's identity.

"My parents probably knew, but I can see why they wouldn't tell me," Emerald had said. "I mean, it'd totally disillusion me about you, Bowselta – I'd think you were a sellout for marrying _Bowser Koopa_ of all people."

"Gee, thanks," growled Bowser.

"Oh, now that I know you're not a tyrant like your father nor a complete idiot like everyone's always said you are, I don't think she's a sellout at all," Emerald grinned. "But my parents didn't know that, so they probably assumed it was forced."

"It does seem like something my parents would pull – using me to get back into the lap of luxury…" Bowselta nodded understandingly. "And Kamek _was_ pestering Bowser to get married by that point, so the timing was perfect."

"But the Parakays were never friends of Morton and Kamek Koopa," said Emerald, who had heard of the Koopa King's right-hand-Magikoopa from her parents. "Needless to say, when my parents lied and told me there had been another Dragon-Koopa family left, I thought it was much more plausible than if it had been Bowselta and thought no more of it…"

Emerald explained that what happened with the royal family thousands of kilometers to the south didn't effect the Lakipas, and since Bowselta avoided the media spotlight there was no real reason or means for Emerald to hear about her later on. There had been rumours floating about when she disappeared, and when she came back and successfully oversaw the brief invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland there had been talk, but somehow her name still evaded the Lakipas. Crystal didn't like violence, though, so they didn't follow the story closely.

As Bowser and Bowselta talked, Emerald started preparing dinner; while she insisted on doing much of the work, the Koopalings were forced to pitch in by their parents (as part of their continued punishment for the wedding fiasco). Emerald actually behaved herself with the boys this time, and while she didn't apologize for her earlier fun, she left Lemmy alone for the rest of the evening.

They ended up dragging some extra tables into the dining room so that they could all eat together, and Emerald had all three of the steaks hanging in the outer cave roasted for the occasion. It was White Dino meat, which was never served in the south, and Emerald even managed to make canned vegetables and mushrooms tasty. After a dessert that used up every last jar of Emerald's Peachy Peaches, the group moved to the living room and talked a bit longer before splitting up to go to sleep.

Emerald and Crystal bunked together, letting Bowser and Bowselta take Emerald's room. Morton and Junior snagged the Clubba-sized cots in the small guestroom, Wendy settled on the padded bench in the kitchen and everyone else was in the living room. Larry took the couch, Ludwig and Iggy got the armchairs, Roy slept on his stool by the door and Lemmy curled up on the fur rug with an extra pillow Emerald had found for him.

The next day, breakfast consisted of all manner of eggs, frozen sausages, cereal and the last of Emerald's pancake mix. Despite the fact that Crystal had just gone food shopping, Emerald decided that they would need more supplies before the day was out, and instructed her to go back down. "And take some Koopalings with you," she added.

Crystal froze. "Um… which ones? I don't want to look like I'm picking favourites…"

Emerald smirked: she could read her daughter like a book and she knew exactly which one was her favourite. "Fine, then we'll pick for you." Emerald led Crystal, Bowser and Bowselta put of the kitchen and into the living room. "All right, you lot, who wants to go down to Westpole with Crystal. She needs to get food and gas."

"Oh! Oh, me! Pick me!" Morton hopped up and down with his arm waving in the air. Wendy and Iggy also raised their arms, and in the back of the room, Larry raised his own feeble hand.

Emerald nodded and then made her choice, as did Bowser and Bowselta. "Iggy." "Pinky." "Larry."

"_Pinky?_" asked Bowser. "You mean Roy?"

"He doesn't even want to go," pouted Wendy.

"Yeah, but I want to make sure there'll be someone there to drag my snowmobile up the mountain in case Crystal runs out of gas again." Emerald winked at her daughter – they both knew why her cheeks had turned copper, and it wasn't her gasoline problems.

"Good point," said Wendy, who was never a fan of physical labour.

"Well… sh- shall we get going?" said Crystal nervously, trying not to focus too much on Roy. Unlike Iggy and Larry, he was the only one who hadn't already gotten to his feet.

"After you," smiled Iggy. He had heard that being a gentleman was the way to win ladies.

Crystal smiled at him as she made her way to the door where Roy was finally standing up with a grumble.

"If you _really_ don't want to go…" she began, gazing sadly at Roy as she pulled on her parka.

"I really don't_ care_," he said simply, pulling open the door and walking through before Crystal could say anything more. Iggy rushed forward to hold it open for Crystal, who forced on another smile as she ducked under his arm and followed Roy. Larry brought up the rear, wondering if he would _ever_ get a chance to get Crystal to notice him with Roy and Iggy sharing the trip. It thus came to his immense surprise when he managed to slip in between Crystal and Iggy on the seat of Emerald's snowmobile. Even though the elder Lakipa's machine had a longer seat than her daughter's defunct snowmobile (Emerald was planning to fix its fuel injector later that day), it was still a tight fit. The fact that the three Koopalings had to hold the person in front of them at arm's length to avoid the shell spikes didn't help, but Crystal insisted it was better than the alternative of dragging people behind the snowmobile on an detachable sled.

"We can't go as fast with the sled," explained Crystal as she drove the snowmobile out of the cave. "And that's the best part of going to town."

"But how fast _can_ you go on that zig-zagging path?" asked Morton, who had come out to see them off.

"Oh, we don't take the _path_ down," grinned Crystal. "Unless we have the sled, which is why it's not nearly as fun if we have to drag someone."

"Wait, then _how_ are we getting down?" asked Larry, though as Crystal taxied the snowmobile directly towards the edge of the plateau, he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"We're going this way," said Crystal, stopping at the very brink of the cliff to pull on a pair of goggles. She then hit the "retract" button on the dashboard; the Koopalings could already feel the machine starting to slide forward on its skids without the anchoring grips of the tires. "Just don't scream too loud," advised Crystal as she pushed the vehicle forward with her feet. "After yesterday's storm, there's a small chance that we could start an avalanche."

"_Avalanche?_" Larry squeaked, wondering why he volunteered in the first place.

"Yeah, they're scary," said Crystal, as the snowmobile's nose tipped downwards. "Hold tight."

"Wait, I-" but it was too late, and before Larry could escape, the snowmobile was completely over the edge and rocketing downwards. Morton whistled to himself and watched them out of sight – he was _definitely_ going on the next trip to Westpole.

-x-

The snowmobile's skids sliced through the freshly-fallen powder snow, and the four Dragon-Koopas all hung on for dear life as it bounced over the hard stuff beneath it. The run was well-used, however, and at the bottom of the shallow trench that the Lakipas had carved into the snow with every passing was pretty smooth overall. The first stretch was a straightaway, but as they passed the Mailbox (which was barely visible around the curvature of the mountain to their left), turns started to appear. It was a far cry from the zig-zagging path up _to_ the cave, but it was still quite harrowing as the snowmobile slid up the rims of the run, coming dangerously close to the lip of the rut. Safely wedged between Larry and Roy, Iggy found himself wondering if the weight of two extra Dragon-Koopas could actually push the usually two-person snowmobile out of its usual arc, however Crystal managed to keep it within the lane.

After a particularly sweeping corner, Westpole appeared directly beneath them. They were still a fair height up, and it actually looked a bit like the view from the _7-Koopa-7_ (which they could even make out in one corner of the valley, covered in snow). While the meandering path came up the southwest side of the mountain, the run dived straight down the sheer west face towards the village. When the mountain eased out a little, the path started snaking a bit so that the snowmobile lost some speed as Crystal was forced to slalom back and forth. The run had been perfected by the Lakipas over the twelve years had lived atop the mountain (they stayed in Westpole until Crystal was old enough to handle the cold for extended amounts of time), and the snowmobile conveniently slid to a stop in the center of town.

"That was amazing!" beamed Iggy, running his fingers through his wind-swept locks.

"Yeah, it's fun," grinned Crystal, shaking her own hair back into position and pulling off her goggles as she lowered the snowmobile's treads. "What did you guys think?"

Roy shrugged. "It was okay."

"Yeah," nodded Larry, trying not too sound too freaked. Unlike Roy, Crystal and Iggy, he didn't have any protective glasses or goggles and his eyes had been watering too much for him to fully appreciate the scenery. If he could see where they were going maybe he would have enjoyed himself more, but as it was, rocketing through a blurry, watery rush of colours wasn't his idea of a good time. He couldn't even appreciate the pleasant company, as found himself wishing Dragon-Koopa shells weren't so spiked – what good is a pretty girl if you have to hold her at arm's length to keep from being impaled?

"Where is everyone?" asked Iggy, looking around the deserted streets.

"Most people hang out inside," said Crystal. "But there isn't even anyone out shoveling their walks… that _is_ kinda strange…"

Their first destination was the garage. Crystal parked the snowmobile outside, and while Roy stubbornly waited with it ("No one's gonna take it if we leave it alone," Crystal had futilely argued), she, Iggy and Larry went inside. Again, there was no one in sight, but Crystal shrugged it off: "they're probably in the shop." Leaning over the counter, she pulled out a small can of gas from some hidden shelves. "I'll just leave the coins on the counter – we don't need to bother them, I do this all the time."

However, Larry was already peeking through the door leading to the shop.

"…_casualties are numbering in the hundreds now, and are expected to climb once the invaders move on to Sarasaland."_ Larry's heart began pounding as he saw the three Shy Guys standing around the wireless – if it was just a radio show, they wouldn't be putting off work, so it must be serious.

"Guys." He beckoned Crystal and Iggy over as he pushed open the door. The Shy Guys' heads snapped around, but they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Crystal.

"Oh, it's you, lassie," said one of the red Shy Guy.

"What's going on, Ed?"

"Listen for yourself…"

He turned back to the radio and the group fell silent as the voice reported: _"This just in: we have received news that the Mario Bros. have been captured, and that King Toadstool has surrendered to the invading forces in an attempt to spare his people the fate of the Koopa Kingdom. No word yet about King Bowser Koopa and his family, however it is assumed that his Chief Advisor, Kammy Koopa was working under his or the Koopa Queen's standing orders when she resisted the human forces._

"_So far, all we know about the invaders is because of a message released by Kammy Koopa shortly after the fall of Dinosaur Land, stating that they are from, and I quote: 'the human world known as Earth, located in a dimension beyond the mysterious portal located to the northeast of Donkey Kong Island'. Why they are invading is unknown; all attempts made by the Koopa and the Mushroom Kingdoms to talk to the invading forces and negotiate a cease-fire have been met with silence. The humans are operating out of a large fleet that was detected in international waters at 10:00 AM yesterday – just over 24 hours ago._

"_Their planes have been seen all across the Koopan and Mushroom Kingdoms, and it is likely that they will soon spread to Sarasaland. Queen Daisy is preparing a strike force to rescue her husband, King Luigi Mario, and her allies to the south. No word yet on whether Jewelry Land or the Beanbean Kingdom are planning to fight or surrender. Communjcation to the Waffle Kingdom and the Alligator Archipelago have both been cut off, but there are rumours that there is a second human fleet heading to, or already besieging the island nations to the south._

"_Casualties are numbering in the hundreds now, and are expected to climb once the invaders move on to Sarasaland. Stay tuned for further updates."_

"Every five minutes they play that same message. You're lucky: they'd just finished the normal round, but they must've wanted to get that news about them Mario Bros. out there immediately." Ed looked at the Koopalings. "I take it they're big shots in the south – especially now that one's a king."

"Dat's got notin' ta do wid it," growled Roy, causing Iggy, Larry and Crystal to jump in surprise, having not heard him slide into the doorframe behind them. "Dey're da Mushroom Kingdom's only real defense. If dey fall, da kingdom falls – and everyone else too, probably, since no one from dis world's been able ta do 'em in ourselves. And trust me – we've tried."

"What should we do?" asked Crystal, looking up at Roy (who was a head taller than her and Larry). "Will the invaders come here?"

"Can't say for sure," said Roy. "But we gotta get to da _Seven_ – Kammy would've sent us some messages dat the plane woulda recorded. It'll have more info den da public radio."

"Right, let's hurry, then!" said Iggy, and the Koopalings rushed away.

"Bye, Ed!" said Crystal as she followed them, pausing once in the doorway. "Be… be safe," she wished them, before disappearing.

-x-

With the snowmobile, they were able to reach the _7-Koopa-7_ in just over a minute. Racing to the bridge, they found the communication station's "Message" alert gently flashing red and beeping.

Iggy plopped down in the seat and turned on the main viewing screen. There were four messages, all from the day before, earmarked 12:45, 13:30, 14:00 and 15:00. Iggy played the first one.

Kammy's face appeared on screen and immediately reported that the humans had started attacking the shore. She said Kamek had sensed them come through the portal late the previous night, and after seeing them with his own eyes that morning, had come to warn her. However, as she started going into more detail about motivation, Roy reached forward and stopped the recording. "We don't have time for dis."

"But I thought you wanted the full story?" said Iggy, trying to swat Roy away.

"Yeah, but not da backstory. Skip to da last one."

Iggy growled and skipped to the next message instead, which soon proved to be just more reports of what towns had been bombed.

"I said _last_, not second. I tought you're supposed ta be blind, not deaf, bozo?" snarled Roy, reaching forward to skip messages himself.

"But what if she says something important?" argued Iggy, flipping to the next message before Roy could do anything and self-consciously fiddling with his prescription goggles.

"We should at least give them all a little listen," said Larry timidly. Roy frowned but fell silent as a harried Kammy reported that Castle Koopa had just withstood a barrage of human missiles.

"No," gasped Larry.

"Koopa…" whispered Iggy.

"Next," ordered Roy impassively.

The final message was even worse. "Bowser, Bowselta, if you're seeing this, please, for the sake of Koopa, don't come back!" beseeched Kammy, who was smeared with dirt and blood – whether it was hers or someone else's, the Koopas couldn't tell. In the background they could hear explosions, screams and gunfire, and the lights in the room were flickering. "The humans have stormed the castle, they're killing everybody. They won't stop. I tried to fight them for you, like I knew you'd want me to, but we couldn't – their guns – it's horrible! Even the ghosts are affected by them-"

Kammy paused and looked back over her shoulder as a nearby explosion caused the recorder to flicker. "I don't have much time. We tried surrendering when it became obvious we'd never win, but it was no use. They won't listen to reason. Please, I beg you, don't come back! It's hopeless: they can't be stopped. Save yourselves, please! I will not tell them where you are, these signals have all been omnidirectional and your radio silence has protected you. But-"

"Kammy!" came Kamek's voice from offscreen as the door behind Kammy burst open. The witch whirled around and fired a blast at her attackers, before jumping out of the way as they started shooting the koopas who rushed forward, mowing them down. An errant bullet must have hit the terminal as well, because the image then flickered, but even as black bars flicked across the spasming grey and white screen, a final moment of audio recording filled the _Seven_'s cockpit: more gunfire, screams and then a final, anguished cry before it was replaced by hissing and snow.

As the "END MESSAGE" screen blinked, the Koopas stared in horror.

"Oh, Koopa," said Crystal softly. "This is terrible. I hope she's okay-"

"She ain't okay," said Roy. "And neitha are we. Dose humans – dey'll be comin' fo' us next." He mashed his fist into his other hand and stared out the window of the plane. "And we've gotta meet dem head on."

"You're going back?" gasped Crystal. "But you'll be killed!"

"Probably," said Roy.

"But-"

"Mom and King Dad won't just sit by while this happens…" murmured Larry.

"We have to tell them," said Iggy, swiveling around in his chair. "Or do you think they already know? You guys have a radio, don't you?"

"Yes, but I really doubt that Mum'll have turned it on – not with company."

"Wendy might," shrugged Iggy. "And Morton too, if he gets cut out the adults' conversation again. And Junior and Ludwig-"

"We get da point," growled Roy.

"So should we head back, then?" said Crystal.

"It takes about an hour to get up there, right?"

"After a big storm like that, yes. We'll have to be really careful on the slopes – if we go too fast it could destabilize things…"

"Will it be better if only you go back?" offered Larry. "We can wait here."

"Umm…"

"Or better yet," said Iggy, before Crystal could make a decision. "Why don't we just fly up?"

"What?" gasped Crystal and Larry.

"I see what you're getting' at," said Roy thoughtfully. "Cuz yeah, it'll take way too long if we have ta go all da way up and come all da way back down with da others so we can leave..."

"But coming down's really fast," said Larry apprehensively.

"Not with the sled," reminded Crystal. "And even if you guys stay here and Mum lets me slide two more of you down on my snowmobile, the rest'll have to be driven with her down the path – that's another hour."

"Da humans could be here any time now," said Roy grimly. "Dey captured da entire south in less den a day. Dey're probably only limited in deir range because of deir gas-guzzlin' planes' fuel ranges, but if dey've set up base in da interior and ain't flyin' off da ships no more, dey could be bearin' down on us at any minute. We don't got two hours ta spare: we gotta go now."

"Wait, if they're coming here, do you think they'll use bombs?" Crystal could just picture Westpole in flames, crawling with the faceless soldiers she had read about. Up north, The Story of Koopa was required reading: the great Queen's legacy was almost a religion – not like in the south where it was all history and superstition; if there was anyone who could understand Bowselta's hatred of humans, it's the northerners.

"If dey find out we've been 'hidin'' here, you can bet on it," said Roy.

"So we do need to get away," murmured Larry.

"Yes, and you're gonna drive," said Iggy, standing up. In response to Larry's petrified gaze, he explained. "You're the only one of us three who's been given piloting lessons. I'm engine, sensors and frontal weapons array only, remember?"

"And I'm just guns."

_Got that right_, thought Crystal, stealing a glance at the muscles bulging beneath the skin of Roy's crossed arms. She smiled at her little joke, and then looked at the quailing Koopaling. "Please, Larry? I mean, if you don't think you can, we wouldn't want to force you and crash or anything, but do you think you could…?"

Larry looked Crystal in the eye for a fleeting moment before turning to the pilot's chair. "I… Yes. I can do it… Mom showed me how to take off into the wind on short runways…" He sat in the chair and ran his hands over the controls. The plane was flown using two joystick-like grips on the handles; they could be turned side-to-side for cruising maneuvers and slid forward and backward to go up or down. Larry knew it all, and he knew what all the buttons did; he even knew how to fire the forward-pointing lasers – no that he'd need them too take off. Then, another doubt crossed his mind. "…Landing might be difficult…"

"You can use the glacier out back," said Crystal. "Hugga and Tabba land their little plane there when they come to visit; it's only a five-minute snowmobile drive up to the cave from there."

"Great," said Iggy. "I'll get the engine warmed up. Roy, could you open the cargo bay for Crystal – you can drive the snowmobile inside: there's room."

"Okay," nodded Crystal, turning and running off to get the snowmobile as Roy and Iggy followed her off the bridge on their way to the cargo bay and the engine room, respectively. Larry sat in the pilot's chair, trying to get a hold of the nerves that were threatening to make him violently ill. _No girl is worth this_, he told himself, _not even Crystal_. But that was a lie.

-xxx-

While the rest of the Koopalings played charades inside, Ludwig, Bowser and Bowselta watched as Emerald pulled the oily fuel injector from the frozen innards of her daugher's snowmobile.

"Ta da!" she said. "I've had to fix this poor guy so much, I could do this in my sleep!"

"Very impressive," smiled Ludwig politely, stepping forward to take a better look under the machine's hood as Emerald moved towards her worktable.

"Aw shucks, flattery will get you everywhere – and I mean _everywhere_," grinned Emerald, hip-checking Ludwig as they passed by each other.

"Don't start that again," warned Bowselta. For his part, Ludwig silently ignored the offer.

"Oh _come on_!" Emerald rolled her eyes as she set the fuel injector down on her bench. "What about that scene inside?"

"What scene?"

"The one where you sicked your horny teenage boys on my little girl," said Emerald wickedly as she wiped down the injector.

"What do you mean?" said Bowselta innocently. "The Koopalings could never have decided who would get to go on their own, so we _had_ to choose…"

"Uh huh…" grinned Emerald.

"It sounds like _you_'re the one playing at matchmaker," snorted Bowselta. "In which case, you're barking up the wrong tree: Roy couldn't care less about romance."

"Yeah," nodded Bowser. "He's a cold fish all right – that's why my money's on Iggy."

"_Bowser!_" gasped Bowselta incredulously.

Emerald's laugh rang through the cave. "At least _someone_'s being honest with me! So your four-eyed geek's a ladies-man, is he? I never would have guessed…"

Bowser shrugged. "He's _very_ persuasive."

"Mmh," grunted Emerald. "He sounds like Brank. That man could talk his way into anyone's pants, I tell ya." She then looked over at Ludwig, who was still inspecting the snowmobile. "What about you, honey? Who do _you_ think's gonna end up with my daughter?"

"Uhhh… I'm afraid zee cold air has caused a relapse in zat deafness I experienced ven I fell into zee moat all zose years ago, and I, uh, can't hear a vord you're saying." Ludwig smiled cheekily. "Terribly sorry." He then ducked back into the snowmobile. He was turning twenty at midnight (legally, at any rate, since he _actually_ hatched around 6:00 AM), but he was starting to wish he wouldn't – being included in his parents' "adult conversations" was proving to be quite terrifying.

"Oh, you're a _funny_ guy, you are," said Emerald, wagging her finger at Ludwig before turning back the fuel injector (she was almost halfway through fixing it). "And you, Bow? Fess up – why'd you choose little Larry. Is it because you want him to pass on your good looks? Seriously, his hair is _just_ like yours back when we were kids."

"No, no, it has nothing to do with that," said Bowselta. She sighed and looked towards the mouth of the cave before going on, resigning herself to the fact that Emerald wouldn't rest until she heard the truth. "It's because… without a little push, he won't have the courage to stand out. He likes Crystal as much as Iggy does – I can see it in his eyes – but he's too shy to compete." Bowselta then faced a smirking Emerald. "I'm not trying to set him up, though – I just think all the kids should be on a level playing field. If Larry needs a leg-up to be on par with his brothers, then I'm willing to give that to him. What they do from there – that's up to them."

"Right – you keep telling yourself that, sister. But it's all useless anyway – my Crystal's only got eyes for your _dead fish_." After a round of laughter, the cave fell silent as Emerald turned back to the fuel injector and Bowser and Bowselta became lost in their thoughts.

After a moment, Ludwig suddenly perked up. "Vat's zat noise?"

"I thought you were deaf," deadpanned Emerald.

"Shh," ordered Ludwig as he turned to face the mouth of the cave. The other three Dragon-Koopas followed his lead, and soon they too started to hear the distant roaring of an engine.

"Is that a plane?" frowned Emerald.

"Maybe… Vatever it is, it's big," said Ludwig.

"Could it be _our_ plane?" asked Bowser.

"That's impossible," insisted Bowselta.

"It's not Hugga and Tabba's plane, that's for sure," said Emerald.

By now, the noise was getting louder. "No, it couldn't be…" frowned Bowselta.

"It is," said Ludwig, starting towards the door.

"Is it your plane?" Emerald pushed herself up from her desk as Bowselta started jogging after Ludwig, with Bowser trudging along behind them.

"What's going on?" Morton now stood in the doorway, flanked by the other Koopalings, who had heard the plane even though their noisy game of charades.

"It's zee _Seven_!" called Ludwig as he and Bowselta burst into the sunlight. They had barely reached the edge of the cliff when the _7-Koopa-7_ roared into view. It was still a ways off from the mountainside, but the Koopas still jumped back in surprise.

"What the hell are they doing!" shrieked Bowselta.

-The _Seven_-

"Level off! Level off!"

"I'm trying!" yelped Larry. "The mountain's in the way!"

"Are we gonna crash?" squeaked Crystal, clinging to the back of Larry's pilot chair. Unlike Roy, Crystal had been too excited by the fancy plane to sit in one of the passenger's seats, and insisted on standing up front and watching over Larry's shoulder instead. But as the screen imbedded in the ceiling above Larry's forehead flashed numerous warnings, she started to wish she wasn't in the know about this flight after all.

"_Level off_!" repeated Iggy over the intercom from the engine room. "Or we're all dead!"

"Let's see _you_ do any better!" protested Larry, the adrenaline in his blood making him more vocal than usual. He hadn't pushed the comm. button, though, so his spunk didn't reach his back-seat driver. Fortunately, after doing the fly-by past the Lakipas' cave, he finally did have enough open air to level off.

-Mt. McUbba-

The rest of the Koopalings, Bowser, Bowselta and Emerald watched as the _Seven_ slowly leveled off, and then started descending.

"Are they _insane_?" said Wendy.

"What reason could they _possibly_ have for pulling a stunt like this?" said Bowser.

"If they wreck my plane and strand us all here, I swear, if they survive the crash, I'll kill 'em," said Bowselta darkly.

"They're coming back down! Oh, do you think they're gonna try landing up here? Where could they do it? On the glacier? Don't those Clubba old folks land _their_ plane on the glacier?" Morton was pretty sure that's what Emerald had told him earlier, but he wanted to be sure and looked to her for a definitive answer.

"They do," nodded Emerald. "But _their_ plane's not nearly as humongus..."

-The _Seven_-

Larry was sweating as the plane passed close by the mountain with its landing gears down. Bowselta had the foresight to install skids, but as the snow swirled around on top of the glacier, Larry wondered it if would actually help very much – the drifting snow looked pretty deep.

"Do a flyby first to get rid of all that fluff," advised Crystal.

"Is it very deep? Will we sink in even if we get the loose top stuff off?"

"How should _I_ know!"

-Mt. McUbba-

"Zey're not landing on zis pass," observed Ludwig.

"If they were, it'd be suicide – they're going way too fast," said Bowselta.

"They're pulling up!" said Morton.

-The _Seven_-

As Larry brought the plane about, he could see the sun glimmering on the glacier. "That's a good sign, right? It doesn't shine on snow, right?"

"Not on lose snow – not like that." Crystal grinned. "Maybe we _can_ do this!"

Encouraged by Crystal's confidence, Larry turned the plane around and brought it back down towards the ice. He was going a bit too fast, however; unlike commercial planes, he couldn't tip the nose up, since the large front wheels needed to contact the ground before the back one. He only had one option, but he knew how far the magically lofty _7-Koopa-7_ could glide and barely hesitated as he cut the engines once they were safely aligned above the runway.

-Mt. McUbba-

Bowselta groaned as the engine noise suddenly ceased.

"Is something wrong?" asked Emerald, her eyes locked on the _Seven_ as it silently sunk through the air over the glacier.

"I never taught Larry to land properly – all he can do is glide in."

"Falling with style! Like Bill Lightsecond in _Toy Tale_ – what a great movie, I-"

Ignoring Morton, Bowselta muttered angrily to herself as her plane neared the ground. "At least it's got good shocks on its landing gear…"

-The _Seven_-

As Larry had planned, the front wheels hit the snow first, but as his mother predicted, it was hardly smooth. The impact threw Iggy to the floor in the engine room, and Crystal nearly joined him up in front, once again regretting her decision to forgo a seat – and a seatbelt. Warnings erupted as the plane bounced back into the air, and the tail nearly hit before the nose dropped down again. Violently shaking up its passengers, the _Seven_ bounced a second time before grinding along the uneven ice on its skids, finally sliding to a stop a couple hundred meters away from the peak of Mt. McUbba.

Larry and Crystal started chucking, too giddy from the adrenaline to manage anything more. The other Dragon-Koopas managed to keep their wits about them, and as Iggy tended to the hissing engine, Roy made a beeline to Crystal.

"We gotta go," he grunted, putting a hand on her shoulder and yanking her off the back of the pilot's chair.

Turning crimson under his touch, Crystal nodded. "Oh, right."

"Open da hatch for us, Giggles," ordered Roy as he and Crystal ran off the bridge. Larry sighed over the loss of the girl's attentions, but did as he was told.

Roy wrenched open the door to the cargo bay and started freeing the snowmobile from the straps that had held it in place. He worked fast, and the ramp had barely hit the ground when Crystal zoomed out of the cargo bay. Making a sharp turn before the _Seven_'s back wheel (which had sunk beyond sight into the snow, despite the surrounding skid), she and Roy passed under the plane and headed for the mountain.

There were only a couple, steep, zig-zags necessary to get them up to the plateau, and it only took them a couple minutes thanks to Crystal's recklessly fast driving. The snowmobile roared over the edge and skidded towards the group of Dragon-Koopas as Crystal brought it to a halt. Roy immediately jumped up from the seat, and before Bowselta could hurl a single admonishment, he made his report: "we've got a problem."


	9. Ghost, Witch and Devil

Chapter 8: Ghost, Witch and Devil

Kammy jerked awake as a bright light suddenly filled her cell. After the humans overpowered the Koopas, they had thrown the leaders into the dungeon, where they chained them to the walls by their wrists and ankles. At first, they had even taken Kammy's clothes, having learned that the Magikoopas could pull potions and other weapons out of their sleeves. However, she suspected the few human anthropologists that were observing the invasion finally got through to the military leaders, since her glasses and the tattered remains of her clock had later been returned.

As the humans had realized, Magikoopas' clothes functioned as amplifiers of their hammerspace abilities, however centuries of being covered had left them with a societal need for modesty. Kammy gathered that enough captive Magikoopas had protested and resisted the humans because of their uncomfortable nakedness and their blindness, and so their bodies and eyes were given their due coverage. The sleeves and pant legs had been ripped from the cloaks, however, and Kammy's arms and toes were quite cold. She was just glad that dragons and their descendants were warm-blooded, unlike the turtles the humans initially believed they had risen from.

Kammy barely had the strength to raise her head and see who was entering her cell. The humans had drugged her; it was a smart move on their part – if she had the energy, Kammy would have succeeded in pulling some small objects from her hammerspace hours ago. All she needed was to spread her fingers far enough apart so that there would be room between the tips to materialize something, and while she was sure she had achieved that a couple times, the tranquilizer was suppressing her energy and she couldn't summon anything forth in that space. It was frustratingly hopeless.

Before her stood Admiral Griggs, who silently sized her up as some orderlies dragged in a wooden table behind him. They pushed it against the wall next to the door, placed a bulky package down on one end, a battery on the other end, and then retreated. The door locked behind them.

"Tell me where the King of the Koopas is hiding," said Griggs.

"No," responded Kammy.

"Tell me where he is."

"No!"

"Tell me-"

"NO!"

"Fine," snapped Griggs. He turned to the table and rolled open the package, revealing an array of sinister torture devices that Kammy could barely see from her vantage point. "We have ways of making people talk, you know. I've been given special permission to do whatever I see fit in order to ensure that our world is protected from you monsters – all off the record, of course."

"You're making a mistake – we have no interest in your world!" insisted Kammy. She had told the humans this more times than she could count, and still they did not listen to reason. Not even the scientists seemed to take what she said as the truth, though they could have been faking for the sake of the military stooges watching over their shoulders.

"You keep saying that… And yet, I don't believe you." Griggs' voice was deathly calm as he attached a pair of large alligator clams to the battery with a sizzling crack. "Now, I'll ask you again, where is King Koopa?"

"I won't tell you. No matter what you do to me, I won't tell!"

Griggs eyed Kammy coolly over his shoulder. "We'll catch him one way or another, all you'll be doing by keeping silent is delaying the inevitable." He turned around to reveal the two metal rods in his hands; they were connected to the battery on the table via coiled red and black wires offering more than enough slack for Griggs to cross the room to his prisoner. He knocked one rod off another and the sparks illuminated the cell almost as much as the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Griggs smiled. "They say this much voltage would render a man unconscious with a single blow, but you beasts are much more resilient, and I trust you won't succumb so quickly."

Kammy ripped her eyes from the rods and glared at Griggs through her tinted glasses, bracing herself for the pain as he approached her.

"My momma always taught me to respect my elders, though, so I'll give you one last chance: tell me where your king is."

"No."

"Very well then, don't say I didn't warn you." Griggs transferred both prods to his left hand, their rubber casing clicking together so that there was still an inch separating the metal. He raised his arm, preparing to strike Kammy, but before he could act, another voice filled the room as Kamek materialized beside his sister.

"NO!"

Without thinking, Griggs' right hand yanked the gun hanging from his left hip and the Admiral emptied two shots into Kamek's silvery form. The bullets passed through the ghost and shattered a couple blocks in the wall behind him. "Shit!" Griggs swore in frustration as he realized he had just wasted two of his custom-made bullets on someone who was already dead. The bullets were meant for a handgun, but shattered upon impact like the birdshot he used for hunting ducks back home with his trusty rifle. Griggs wasn't one for taking prisoners, and he found birdshot made sure that when he shot someone, they died.

But, unbeknownst to Griggs, the bullets _did_ affect Kamek. Unlike most objects, which simply slid through his form, the bullets carved holes through his energy as they went. It took a moment before more energy swirled in to fill the tunnels, and even then, Kamek still felt what had been taken from him, as if the bullets had sucked out part of his soul itself. While he kept his face blank, his mind reeled at the true blackness of human weaponry; if it could do this to the undead, it was no wonder the living stood no chance.

"Who are you and what do you want!" demanded Griggs. "Are you her dead husband or something? Because she's gonna be the one paying for those bullets!"

"I'm her brother," said Kamek, hoping it would mean something to Griggs. "And I will not stand by and watch you torture her."

"And how do you hope to accomplish that?" growled Griggs. "You have no power – not over men."

"True," said Kamek. While ghosts usually could possess people, the Earth humans could resist them because of the cursed weaponry they carried. It was sheer agony to occupy one of their bodies, and the control could not be maintained for long. "I am not here to fight you – I know that will only cause Kammy more pain."

"What are you doing?" hissed the old witch.

"I'm saving your life," said Kamek.

Kammy's eyes widened. "No… No! Don't do it Kamek! Don't tell him!"

"I know where the King and Queen of the Koopas have gone," declared Kamek.

"Really?" Griggs' bloodthirsty eyes lit up.

"Don't tell him! Please!" begged Kammy.

"Where are they?" shouted Griggs. "Tell me or I'll kill her!"

"Don't do it Kamek!"

"I won't let him kill you," said Kamek.

"No, Kamek, _please, NO!_" wailed Kammy desperately.

"TELL ME!" roared Griggs.

"They've flown north!" Kamek's voice echoed around the room as Kammy fell into horrified silence. "To a town known as Westpole. Bring me a map, and I'll show you where they are, what flight paths they took, and where they'll go when they find out about this invasion."

Admiral Griggs sneered victoriously. It had been King Bowser who led the initial invasion on Earth, and while he didn't yet know it was Bowselta who killed his brother, he knew the only way he could get his revenge was by killing the Koopas. "Well, thank you very much… ah, 'Kamek', was it?"

The Magikoopa ghost nodded. "Promise you won't lay another finger on my sister, and I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"How could you do this?" gasped Kammy, her voice barely a whisper as she stared up at Kamek.

"I promise, she won't be harmed further. I'll give you a moment to talk – I know how important family is." Griggs knocked on the door, which one of the guards then opened for him from the outside. Usually, he would have demanded that Kamek come immediately, but as the Magikoopa had predicted, the Admiral felt some compassion for a brother who would linger beyond the grave to protect the one he loved from their own death. He still planned to kill Kammy as soon as Kamek's usefulness ran out, but perhaps he'd just have her shot – quick and easy. "Be in the map room in five minutes – it's your castle, so I trust you know where that is."

"I do," said Kamek as the door closed behind the Admiral. He looked at Kammy, who was hanging weakly from her bonds. "I'm sorry..."

"No you're not," she whimpered, before shaking with rage. "No you're not! How could you do this! Why, Kamek, _why_? How could you? Just because you hate Bowselta you'd-"

"This has nothing to do with her!"

"Yes it does! It always does! You've destroyed so much – you've destroyed _yourself_ because you hate her, and now you're throwing away this world's last hope of-"

"'_Last hope'?_" repeated Kamek incredulously. "There is no hope! They've captured the freaking _Mario Brothers_! There's no hope in hell that Bowser, Bowselta and eight Koopalings, in their one airplane, could stop an army that has done so much! It's over: we've lost!"

"You're wrong!" howled Kammy, tears streaming out from behind her glasses. "You only did this because you want Bowselta dead as much as that- that monster does!"

Kamek shook his head furiously. "I did this because I love you!"

"If you loved me, you would have known that I'd rather _die_ than see them killed! _I_ _love_ _them! _I love them as if they were my own children – and grandchildren! I love them more than you could ever know, more than you could ever understand!"

"You heard Griggs," snapped Kamek. "They're gonna catch them sooner or later, and knowing Bowser and Bowselta, they'll come charging south the moment they get wind of the invasion. They're gonna throw their own lives away – they don't need you to throw in yours as well!"

"You're wrong!" screamed Kammy, even though she knew, deep down, that he wasn't.

"…I don't want things to end this way either," said Kamek softly as his sister sobbed before him. "But there's no way around it… I just couldn't sit by and watch you suffer… not again." Kamek thought back to when they were children and he was powerless to help his sister as she battled the plague that had taken their parents' lives; it was a miracle that she survived, but it took its toll. "And I do understand how you feel… I always thought that it was unfair how you were the one who caught that plague: you would have been a great mother."

Kamek's words were meant to comfort her, but all they did was fill Kammy with a burning hatred. Reminding her of the sterility the plague had left her with was adding insult to injury. Kamek had gone too far. "If they _were_ my actual children, would you still sentence them to death?" She looked up at Kamek, before raising her voice from a growl to a shriek. "_WOULD YOU?_"

"What? No! I didn't-"

"You didn't what? You didn't think that I'd see through your lies? You're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart – hell, we both know that you ripped your heart out long before Her Fieryness blew it away with the rest of your body. So, why don't you stop wasting my time pretending like you give a damn about me, or about love, or about anything! Go tell that murderous pig where the last of his opposition is hiding and then the two of you can have your revenge! That's what it's all about, isn't it?"

"No, I-"

"You can tell yourself you did this to save me as much as you like, but it's a lie and you know it! Griggs will kill me the moment he gets what he wants from you, and there will be nothing you can do to stop him. I'm too dangerous to even be kept locked away – not that that's a life I'd care to live anyway, so really, once you two have killed the Koopas, I'll be _looking forward_ to joining them!"

"Don't say that!" gasped Kamek, a shadow crossing his silvery face. "Trust me, death is… horrible."

"But what you've done to me is worse," hissed Kammy. "Now go!" She turned as far away from her brother as the restrains would allow, squeezing her eyes shut as if that could stop the tears from cascading down her face. She had always hoped her brother could put his hatred aside and accept Bowser and Bowselta for who they were; she had always hoped the two of them could be a family again, but now she knew it was all in vain. "And don't bother coming back afterwards, because I never want to see your face again!"

Kamek floated before her at an utter loss for words. He cast around for something – anything – to say to make it better, but he knew that anything he said would just hurt his sister. He had lingered as a ghost for nearly nine years because he made a promise to himself, to Kammy and to their parents that he would protect her, but now he was truly dead to her. The battle between Kamek's love for his sister and his hatred of the Koopa Queen also died in that cell: he had lost Kammy, so all that was left for him was Bowselta Koopa. He had made a deal with the devil, and now he had to see it through. The ghost turned away from his sister and floated towards the corner in the direction of the map room, but as he vanished into the darkness, one word finally came to Kamek:

"Goodbye."


	10. Sixteen minus Seven

**A/N: For my inspiration, I credit the aforementioned **_**Memphis Belle**_**, and both the book and movie versions of **_**The Hunt for Red October**_**, as well as **_**Top Gun**_** and even **_**The Incredibles**_** (though I came up with the idea to do an airplane scene long before the latter was released). This chapter relies heavily on the "location section breaks" to jump between different Koopas' perspectives, but sometimes a section that starts out in one area expands to describe what's going on elsewhere, more like how I "normally" write (continuous, flowing paragraphs). Rather than shoehorn the text into the template, I decided to write the chapter in the way that felt most natural: sometimes, letting the events spill into each other is easier to read than if its broken into little chunks – or at least, that's what I found. Any feedback on this experimental writing style would be much appreciated, so please read, review and enjoy!**

Chapter 9: Sixteen minus Seven

The _7-Koopa-7_ had passed back into volcanic Dark Land by noon. They were almost at the same latitude as the Northern Fortress, but they stayed far away from it, having learned of its capture shortly after leaving Westpole over the radio. Instead, they cut through the very center of Dark Land, where the cliffs were too steep for people to live on, and where the valleys were filled with lava as it oozed between the mountains, carving out an endless network of tunnels in their roots. Their goal was to get as deep into the Koopa Kingdom as possible, hide the plane in one of the tunnels, and then recruit people by foot from the various villages dotting the gentler slopes to the West. Having spent her entire adolescence secretly slipping between those villages, Bowselta had no doubt that she could lead the Dragon-Koopas through Dark Land undetected for months if need be.

With the Koopa family were Emerald and Crystal, the elder Lakipa having forced Bowselta to let them tag along. She and Crystal knew it would be dangerous, but they couldn't stand the thought of hiding in Westpole while their friends faced the humans. Besides, there was no guarantee that Westpole would remain safe anyway, and in a way, Emeald figured she and her daughter stood a better chance with the Koopas – and this way, they'd also have a chance to make a difference and help fight the invaders. In fact, after decades of living in the sleepy little arctic town, Emerald was downright excited about the journey ahead, though the majority of the _Seven_'s passengers did not share her enthusiasm.

Crystal sighed and leaned back in her chair, having grown tired of the view from her window: blue skies above, grey clouds below, and nothing else. Across from her, Junior was secretly wishing something interesting would happen, and behind him, Lemmy and Roy were playing a game of cards. Emerald and Bowser watched them, too busy thinking about the future to strike up a conversation. Bowselta was of the same mind: she piloted the plane mutely, deaf to Morton's chattering and Ludwig's occasional responses before her. In the back, Iggy and Wendy were the only ones holding a real conversation, as Wendy's seat faced the front door to the engine room where Iggy was stationed.

Across from her, Larry sat beside the hatch, thinking about Crystal. He knew that the group would have to split before long, once everyone had learned enough survival skills to make it without Bowselta, and he hoped he and Crystal would be in the same group. Once Dark Land was fully canvassed, he wondered if the Dragon-Koopas would go further and start recruiting in Sarasaland. He could just imagine what it would be like to hike through the mountains of Chai with Crystal, far away from everyone and everything: alone, and in love.

-Bridge-

"…And then, the bug's head _explodes a_nd the worms swim into the water."

"Lovely," said Ludwig absentmindedly.

"I _know_, isn't it? It's a great mental image – really visceral and scary and gross. It'd make a great horror film, but the scary part is that it's true! It's happening right now – in every Moo Moo water trough in the _world_! I can just picture the title: 'The Milk Worms of Doom' or maybe 'Brain Worms: The Eruption' – which'll leave room for more films later on. Like maybe 'Brain Worms: Death by Worm'. Yeah, yeah, and every movie can be about a different kind of worm, each fighting for world domination! That'd be so cool."

"I still don't see how any of zis relates to Pysagorean's Seorem," sighed Ludwig, staring out the window. Unlike Junior, however, he wasn't foolish enough to hope for something to happen.

"I _told you_," moaned Morton. "Triangles-"

"BEEP BEEP BEEP"

Every Dragon-Koopa on the bridge jumped as the radar alarm in Ludwig's display board went off.

"What is it?" demanded Bowselta, all thoughts of the future banished from her mind.

"Zee radar's picked somesing up at eleven o'clock. Size indeterminate, distance from our position: seventy-five kilometers and closing. It looks like vatever it is, it's moving at around a szousand kilometers per hour."

"Humans," hissed Bowselta.

"You sure?" asked Emerald from the back of the bridge.

"Dis plane's da only ting dat can go dat fast from dis world," said Roy.

"They'll be on top of us in less than five minutes," said Bowselta, hitting a switch on her pilot's chair. Instantly, more lights flared to life on her, Ludwig and Morton's control panels, as the _7-Koopa-7_'s tactical systems came online. "Battle stations," announced Bowselta over the intercom for Iggy, Wendy and Larry's benefit. Lemmy's station was in the tail, so Bowselta would let him fill Iggy and the waist gunners in on the details on his way by. As he raced off the bridge, Bowser and Roy pulled their retractable firing controls down from the ceiling and out from the walls behind them. They remotely controlled the _Seven_'s turrets; Bowser's guns were positioned directly above the hatch leading out of the bridge, while Roy's turret was behind the back wheel, right where the plane began tapering off towards the tail.

Wendy and Larry's waist gunner stations were directly between the two turrets, located right behind the wings. Unlike Roy and Bowser, whose stations looked like advanced gaming consoles, Wendy and Larry controlled their guns directly, swiveling them through special holes in the window, where magical barriers maintained a seal necessary to maintain cabin pressure within the plane. Just to be safe, however, Bowselta started flying the _Seven_ down towards the clouds; in case the power failed, she didn't want everyone sucked out of the plane. As long as they remained inside the magically re-enforced _Seven_, there was still a chance they could survive a crash, though it was very slim indeed.

Therefore, the name of the game was prevention, and the _7-Koopa-7_ was built for just that. Morton and Ludwig were now playing double-duty up front, manning a final pair of forward-facing lasers situated on the plane's chin. They could be angled like the waist guns, but were automated like the turrets – albeit with a much simpler interface, since the Koopalings could see the targets with their own eyes through the windows. They were still keeping watch over the control boards, but this was now secondary to their offensive roles. In addition to all that were the gyra launchers and fixed forward-facing lasers, both under Bowselta's command, and the Bullet Bill launcher in the back of the plane. The array of lasers covered every angle of attack, and the projectiles handled long range fighting, but there was one final touch to Bowselta's flying fortress.

Iggy's voice crackled over the comm. "Ready to engage the shields."

"Engaging," replied Bowselta, flipping off a safety and activating the forcefields that would protect the _Seven_ from most enemies. A green shell flickered briefly about the plane, but even after it had disappeared, Emerald and Crystal could see its effects as the clouds were parted by the invisible barrier long before they could come in contact with the airplane's nose.

"W- will that stop the humans from shooting us down?" asked Crystal.

"I had this shield developed to do just that," said Bowselta. "Human weaponry cancels out the magical energies of this world, and their bullets will slice through most forcefields like a hot knife through butter for that reason. There is no way around that, but by creating a shield that is so saturated with energy, I think we can overwhelm the dark forces at work."

"So, you think that the life-sucking evil of human weaponry is just another force? Like friction, or- or drag? And that it can just be overcome with another force?"

"Yep, with a force_field_," grinned Morton. "Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun."

Ignoring her son, Bowselta shrugged. "Physics, magic… it's all the same really: it's all energy. The problem is that humans come from a different universe, where the laws of nature aren't exactly the same: they have different energies, and they interact with the energies exclusive to our world in strange ways."

"I still don't get the whole 'other universe' thing," moaned Crystal.

"Vee can go over it again _after_ zee battle," said Ludwig curtly. "Zee humans have increased speed and are on a final approach. Ven vee clear zee clouds, vee'll be in visual range."

"That's assuming we _survive_ the battle," grumbled Junior.

"Which is assuming old Bow's right about the magic physics stuff," said Emerald, grinning sadistically at the back of the Queen of the Koopa's head.

"If I'm wrong, it'll be a very short battle indeed," said Bowselta as the plane burst out of the bottom layer of clouds. Directly ahead of them were four F-16 Fighting Falcon human jets in tight formation. "Everybody ready?" asked Bowselta over the intercom.

"Ready," droned Ludwig, Morton, Bowser and Roy on the bridge.

-Waist-

"Ready," reported Wendy over the com.

"Ready," murmured Larry, trying not puke on his transmitter.

-Engine Room-

"Ready!" Iggy nearly had to yell to make himself heard over the steaming engine: the one drawback to Bowselta's forcefields was that they put incredible amounts of strain on almost all of the _Seven_'s systems, resulting in a very cranky engine. The amount of raw energy that was circulating through the wall of piping before Iggy was enormous, and he knew as soon as his siblings started firing their lasers, it would get worse. As soon as Bowselta kicked the jets into high gear, it would get worse. As soon as bullets started hitting the shields, it would get worse. As soon as the Gyra and Bullet Bills started being called out the _Seven_'s artificial hammerspace, it would get worse. The plane had been tested at full power before, but Iggy knew all too well what would happen if anything went wrong, and not even the Near-Immortals would survive it.

-Tail-

"Ready," chirped Lemmy, trying his best to hide the fear in his voice as his knuckles turned white on the laser grips. Junior was too young to operate a weapons array unsupervised, and Wendy refused to work in such cramped conditions, so the tall yet skinny Lemmy had become tail gunner by default. The tail narrowed from all directions at the back of the _Seven_, and while he still had plenty of elbow room, he had to hunch over his gun, his butt planted firmly in the seat atop the bullet bill cannon, with his legs straddling it on both sides. It was a little awkward, and Lemmy didn't really like how his hair still brushed the ceiling, but what he really didn't like was being so far removed from the rest of the plane.

Before the battle, he had to wait, staring at the clouds and mountains behind them as the enemies closed in on them from in front; he had no way of knowing when the battle would begin, and the suspense was killing him. But as soon as the first shots were exchanged, the _Seven_ would pass its enemies, and the game of chase would begin – and the enemies would by _all_ that Lemmy would see. Roy's turret would help shoot any bogeys behind and below the plane, but the real onus would be on him, the tail gunner, to take them out before they could shoot the Koopas out of the sky. Lemmy looked down at the bullet bill canon between his legs and in spite of himself, thought about Emerald.

_Koopa_, he thought to himself, _and I thought _she_ was scary_.

-Bridge-

"You guys all buckled up?" called Bowselta to the three passengers.

"Yep," said Emerald.

"Yeah," said Crystal, gripping the armrests of her chair.

Junior grunted, angry that there was nothing for him to do except sit and watch.

"Then let's show these bastards what we're made of," grinned Bowselta, flipping a switch on the control sticks and gunning the engines. The _7-Koopa-7_ doubled its speed in a matter of seconds; the Koopas strained against the acceleration, but it was worth it: the F-16s were taken aback and had to scramble to avoid the larger plane as it barreled through their midst. Bowser, Larry, Wendy, Morton and Ludwig mercilessly opened fire on the Fighting Falcons, their angry red laser beams cutting harmlessly through the _Seven_'s forcefield and slicing through the air after the humans.

-Tail-

Unfortunately, not a single enemy was hit in the first volley, and all four Falcons lined up behind the _Seven_, aiming to begin their execution. But Lemmy was ready for them and shot a volley of rapid bursts of burning laser light towards the line, which once again broke off their attack: they had not anticipated the presence of a tail gunner. While all of Lemmy's shots missed, two of the F-16s made a fatal error and chose to dive below the _Seven_ to avoid them, allowing Roy to get a clean shot, slicing the lead plane in two.

The other plane narrowly avoided the explosion and shot a vengeful missile towards the belly turret that killed the first F-16. But as Bowselta had predicted, the shield did its job and the missile exploded on impact. The _Seven_ still shook violently from the blast, and the forcefield flickered ominously as power levels fluctuated in the engine room, but it was nothing Iggy couldn't handle by tweaking a couple valves.

-Bridge-

The Koopas grinned, but the victory was short-lived as the other pair of Falcons came around and showered the _Seven_ with bullets as they streaked by, flying twice the speed of the larger plane. The forcefield looked like glowing green water in a rainstorm as the bullets pelted against it, each one sapping as much energy as it could in the instant it spent on the surface before being repelled by the barrier and falling down towards the bald mountains below.

"We'll get 'em on their next pass," growled Bowser, his face pressed against the screen as he tracked the enemy fighters, waiting for them to come back into range. Without warning, the third plane dived out of the clouds. Bowser swore loudly as he swiveled the turret skywards, angry at how he totally forgot about that Falcon. He had been so concentrated on shooting the one pair that he didn't even listen as Larry reported the third one's take to the heavens after it fired its missile and dodged both the resulting explosion and the second youngest's Koopalings lasers. The F-16 wasn't as lucky this time, and Bowser's laser cut straight through one of its wings before it could fire more than a couple missiles.

"Yes, I- oh, shit!" Bowser's face paled as he realized the burning wreckage was falling straight towards the _Seven_.

Bowselta saw it too, and swung the plane to the left to try and avoid the wreckage, but there was no time. It struck the forcefield protecting the upturned starboard wing, which buckled under the force of the exploding jet craft. Fire and debris pelted the wing, destroying the nearest engine and the aileron behind it. The rest of the F-16 was knocked into the plane's body, where it once again blasted through the shield. Wendy screamed and dived out of the way as her station was showered in sparks, the fuselage nearly breaking in half because of the impact.

Then, as soon as it had begun, it was over and the Fighting Falcon had fallen away from the _Seven_, which remained airborne and whole, save for its crippled wing and the damage done to the starboard fuselage. Both the bridge and the engine room were awash with alarms.

"Report!" barked Bowselta.

"I need help back here!" called Iggy over the com. "The engine-" Before he could finish, however, the _Seven_ shook violently as the remaining two F-16s fired a volley of missiles at the undamaged wing. The forcefield managed to hold, but the explosion sent the wing reeling upwards, and Bowselta struggled to keep the _Seven_ under control as a new barrage of short-range missiles and bullets pelted the broken bird.

Green sparks danced around the _Seven_ as the shield threatened to give out entirely, and Ludwig leapt to his feet. "Junior, take it!" he commanded as he vaulted up the stairs and dashed towards the engine room. Usually the young Koopaling would have resented being ordered around, but he was too thrilled at the prospect of operating one of the lasers and bounded towards Ludwig's vacated seat with a grin that could barely be contained behind his scarf.

-Waist-

"It won't budge," said Wendy, watching as Ludwig hurled into view and threw himself at the hatch to the engine room. "It closed automatically when the wing got hit, and then the wall got crunched." Ludwig looked up; the fuselage was indeed crushed above the hatch – and over much of Wendy's abandoned station as well. The girl was sitting on the floor, next to Larry, her pupils unnaturally dilated. Her voice was strangely calm as well, and Ludwig realized she was in some sort of shock. Unfortunately, there was no time for that.

"You're gun still vorks, get back to it! Zere's no shield in zis section, and if zey shoot us here, zey vill destroy us!"

"But if there's no shield their bullets could kill me," whimpered Wendy, knowing that the barrier that was still maintaining cabin pressure could only hold back air, and not deadly ballistics.

Ludwig dived at her, seizing her roughly by the upper arms and looking her straight in the eyes. "If you stay here and zey shoot at your empty station, it vill kill us _all_."

Wendy's face was livid, but some of the colour started to return to her cheeks as Ludwig hauled her to her knees. However, as the plane shook with another shield-cracking explosion, he realized he didn't have time for that and simply threw his sister in the direction of her station.

"Shoot zem!" he bellowed as he turned and sprinted down the hallway towards the tail of the plane and the aft hatch to the engine room.

Wendy pushed herself up, tears welling in her eyes – whether it was out of indignity or plain fear, she wasn't entirely sure herself. Larry looked over at her furtively, wondering if there was something he could say, but Wendy spoke first.

"Trade you!" her shrieking voice cracked as she lunged at Larry, ripping him off his gun and pushing him towards her station. He staggered, but managed to stay on his feet, and silently assumed his new position as Wendy tried to take aim at the nearest F-16, angrily wiping away the tears so that her vision stopped swimming.

-Engine Room-

"What took you?" scolded Iggy. "That last blast totally fried the shields and destroyed engine two."

"Vendy vas having a meltdown," said Ludwig woodenly.

"The _plane_ is having a meltdown," cried Iggy.

-Bridge-

"Heh heh heh, EAT THIS!" cackled Junior, firing a barrage of lasers as one of the F-16s came about, but it was useless: the enemy was out of range. The Fighting Falcons had taken to circling around their wounded prey, attempting to shoot its unprotected starboard midriff with their missiles while staying away from the Koopas' lasers. Despite all the damage to the starboard wing, and the fact that there was only one fully-functional jet engine left (the outside engine on the left wing; the outside engine on the right was working but threatened to cut out at any moment and the other two were useless), Bowselta could still manage some fancy maneuvering of her own and prevented the F-16s from getting clear shots at the _Seven_'s weak points. She knew she couldn't keep it up forever, but Junior's bravado reminded her of one last trick she could attempt.

With a grim smile, she pulled the _Seven_ into as hard a turn as it could manage, ejecting a dozen Gyra as the plane came about to face the F-16 that had eluded Junior. "Shoot in front of it," advised Bowselta, but Junior didn't listen, merely shooting at random in the general direction of the Falcon. Fortunately, this had the same effect and the jet was forced to abruptly change course, turning nearly upside down to arc back away from the _Seven_. But as it circled around, aiming to make a pass at the _Seven_'s damaged starboard, it flew right into Bowselta's trap. The Gyra must have appeared on the pilot's sensors, but as Bowselta hoped he would, the human ignored the tiny projectiles and died not knowing what had hit him.

But even before the initial fireball died down, the final Falcon made a last, desperate pass at the _7-Koopa-7_. It dove down straight towards the cockpit, out of the range of Junior and Morton's lasers. Bowser's turret hadn't been working very well since the one F-16 smashed into the _Seven_, and he wasn't able to stop the last Falcon before his guns were destroyed as the jet strafed the _Seven_'s fuselage. Fortunately, Ludwig and Iggy had managed to reroute the raw energy shield to the magical forcefields usually used to keep the plane air-tight, and the bullets were not able to penetrate the inner layer of the _Seven_'s hull.

Bowselta dived and turned the plane in an attempt to put the Falcon in range of Wendy's gun, but the human was faster and fired a missile directly into the _Seven_'s last fully functional engine. The master alarm went off as the plane slipped out of the air, unable to pull itself up as the shallow dive rapidly became steeper and steeper.

-Waist-

"NOOOO!" screamed Wendy, firing at the Falcon and forcing it to finally break off its attack. She couldn't believe it – she couldn't die. Not like this.

-Tail-

Wendy's howl echoed through the plane and sent shivers up Lemmy's spine. Suddenly, the F-16 appeared in his window, climbing away from the mountains as the _Seven_ fell to its doom. A cold fury came over Lemmy, and without thinking, he reached down and fired the Bullet Bill cannon. He hadn't used it in battle because it became clear that the Falcons could outfly the projectiles, so their homing feature was useless. But the Falcon was fighting gravity, to which the Bullet Bill was impervious thanks to its Mushroom World magic, and besides, even if it was a slim chance, it's not like he could save the weapon for some other occasion.

As it turned out, one of Wendy's lasers had nicked the retreating F-16, and like the _Seven_, the Fighting Falcon was having major engine trouble, which, combined with the onus of gravity, was just enough to tip the physics in the Koopas' favor. The last thing Lemmy saw before the _7-Koopa-7_ fell through a canopy of volcanic smoke was the explosion of final F-16.

-Bridge-

Morton, Emerald, Crystal, Bowser and Junior screamed as a mountainside reared out of the volcanic cloud, but Bowselta managed to steer the plane away from the rocks as it careened down into a valley.

"Just end it already we'll all gonna die anyway!" cried Junior melodramatically.

"ENGINE ROOM!" bellowed Bowselta over the com. "Iggy, Ludwig, whatever you're planning to do, do it NOW!" She was confident that her sons had something up their sleeves, and for that reason, she would keep the _Seven_ in one piece as long as she could. But as they shot out of the bottom of the lowest layer of soot and saw the river of lava rapidly looming up to meet them, the other Koopas were confident that they were doomed.

-Engine Room-

The Koopalings in the engine room had not given up yet, however. A quick diagnostic told them that there was a good chance that the damage to the two inside jet engines did not extend to the reverse mechanisms, only the main vents, and so there was a chance the _Seven_ could blast itself back into control. As soon as they felt the plane start to sink after the last explosion, they started redirecting the raw energy flow from the fuselage forcefields (they wouldn't be enough to keep them in one piece when they hit the ground, and so the jet engines were a better bet). Unfortunately, they had ruined much of the main engine's plumbing with their initial redirect of the energy from the shields to the fuselage. By the time Bowselta's voice screeched over the intercom, they had opened the right channels to let the energy flow to the engines, but they could not automatically force the unstable raw energy to divert.

"What do we do?" moaned Iggy.

"Vee do it manually," said Ludwig, holding up his hand with a grin and flashing a small bit of electricity between his outstretched fingers. Iggy's smile matched his brother's as the eldest Koopaling crawled around him to the front of the engine room (though because the plane was in vertical free-fall, it was more like the bottom of the gravity-less chamber). Grabbing the intercom, he gave Bowselta her instructions. "Vee sink vee can get engines two and sreee to reverse along vit four. Vee have to shut off zee flow and jump-start everysing manually first, however. Ven zee power returns, punch it."

As Ludwig spoke, Iggy hurriedly shut the engine down. If they tried to brute-force the raw energy from one path to another, the engine, and by extension the entire plane, would surely explode. The automated systems made the transition stable, but the sheer force of the raw energy had burnt them out, and so the only option left was to kill the flow entirely in order to keep the energy under control. As the _Seven_ went dark (save for the red emergency lights), Iggy and Ludwig yanked open the maintenance hatches and stuck their hands almost completely inside the engine. There was a good chance that violently electrocuting the system would also result in a deadly explosion, but there was no time to let the engine turn on using normal channels – assuming it could turn itself back on at all after sustaining so much damage.

"On sree: vone. Two! SREE!" on Ludwig's count, both Koopalings blasted the engine with their lightning powers.

-Bridge-

As the control panels flashed back to life, Bowselta hit the "reverse" switch and gunned the engines. New vents snapped open on the bottom sides of the engines next to the bridge; the tops were too damaged and merely sparked evilly, unlike the far right engine, which had channels open on both surfaces. Glowing bluish-white energy immediately spewed out of the open vents, and the Koopas could feel the plane jerk in response, slowly decreasing in speed. Bowselta pulled back on the control sticks as hard as she could, slowly forcing the _7-Koopa-7_'s nose up and away from the lava.

"Yes!" Bowselta grinned triumphantly as one of the warnings finally cut out: the plane was level enough for the instruments to read things as being under control. She disengaged the engines so that the plane would not lose too much forward momentum, and it silently leveled-off just under a hundred feet above the river of lava. "We can land in that cave," said Bowselta, catching sight of an old lava tunnel burrowing into the cliff to the _Seven_'s left. It was not too far ahead of the plane and about the same altitude above the active river, meaning it was a former lava flow itself, which had long since hardened.

The plane coasted into the cave without issue, and Bowselta even wondered if she would need to hit reverse again to slow their speed enough to land. The tunnel seemed to go on for a while, however, and the deeper she could get the plane under the mountain, the better. She had originally planned to hide the _Seven_ in a cave like this one, and she felt some relief that her carefully laid plans had not been totally ruined by the F-16s.

-Engine Room-

As the plane leveled off and gravity returned to the engine room, Iggy whooped. "Yeah! It worked! I can't believe it!" he slammed his two maintenance hatches closed and beamed at Ludwig.

The other Koopaling looked back at him, immediately catching sight of the gauge beside his horn. It was deep in the red, but Iggy and Ludwig had tuned out that particular warning chime in the face of everything else that was borderline critical. This was beyond critical, however – this was terminal.

"Look Out!" bellowed Ludwig.

Following his gaze, Iggy's face snapped to the gauge and paled as he realized what was happening. Iggy didn't have time to react, but Ludwig had already sprang and knocked the younger Koopaling out of the way as the pipeline exploded. Iggy landed in a heap in the hallway, looking up to find that the door had once again automatically swung closed behind him. Ludwig was still in the engine room.

-Bridge-

The _7-Koopa-7_ was jolted by the explosion and every single system went dead for the last time. The emergency lights flickered on after a second; they were separate from the main power grid, like the intercom. "Engine Room?" Met with silence, Bowselta paled. "_Engine Room!_"

"Help!" Iggy's frantic voice came onto the com from the station in the back hallway. "There was an explosion! Ludwig's trapped!"

Bowselta's eyes widened in horror and she looked over her shoulder at Bowser, catching his eye as he tore himself out of his battle station and headed for the hallway.

He did not get far, however, as the _Seven_'s starboard wing crunched against a stalactite that Bowselta had not seen up ahead in the blackness of the cave. The impact twisted the plane around, smashing the other wing into the ceiling of the tunnel. Thanks to the missile damage, the wing was already compromised and snapped in two along the edge of the outer engine. The _Seven_ was hurled back to the ground; the energy within the hull prevented the fuselage from complete destruction like the wing, so while the screaming Koopas were protected from harm, the magically lofty plane continued to ricochet down the tunnel.

Most of right wing was soon ripped off just beyond the outer engine, destabilizing its energy and causing it to explode. The _Seven_ tumbled even more violently as a result, its nose and tail alternately smashing into the ground as it barreled end-over-end through the widening cave. Morton and Junior nearly wet themselves as the panels before them were crushed by the impacts, and Lemmy narrowly survived, having barely begun climbing out of his tail gunner position when the _Seven_ first leveled off.

Suddenly, the bridge was bathed in the pale light of the Dark Land sky as the _Seven_ flew out of the tunnel after bouncing upwards one last time, though it soon spiraled back down towards the ground below. There, it finally came to a rest, its nose crunching right into the ground and stabilizing the plane enough so that it didn't bounce or flip over, but merely had its tail could fall back to the earth as well. Luckily, the hulk landed right side up and relatively level to the ground.

The Dragon-Koopas slowly came to their senses. "Ha ha, we're alive!" crowed Morton, as Emerald chuckled weakly. Bowser picked himself up off of the ground in the hallway, where he had managed to grab hold of a handlebar to prevent himself from being knocked about the plane. Unlike Crystal, who swiftly unbuckled her seatbelt to wretch on the floor, or Larry and Wendy who lay in a daze in the hallway before him, Bowser didn't have time to recuperate at his own pace. His son needed him, and he contented his sprint to the tail and the only useable door to the engine room.

-Bridge-

"Ha ha, and you thought we were dead!" Morton gazed blearily at Junior, who merely stared at the cracked glass and twisted metal before him and tried to collect his wits. "Heh, that was some great flying Mom. Until the end, that is, but what can ya do? Eh, Mom? Do you think-"

"Get out of the plane," said Bowselta, who, unlike Junior, was not staring off into space, but surveying the land beyond the _Seven_'s ruined windshield. The reason why the _Seven_ had finally come to rest was that it did not hid solid ground off which it could continue to ricochet as in the tunnel: instead, it had crunched into the hardened surface of a lava pool. Breaking the solidified crust absorbed the plane's momentum, but it had also destabilized the shell, and large cracks had begun to radiate out from the _Seven_'s position. Before the others could grasp the situation, the plane began to tilt sideways, sinking into the lava as the ground beneath it broke apart. "GET OUT OF THE PLANE!" screamed Bowselta, making sure she urgency of the situation was understood this time. She need not have worried: the red glow outside the window and the ominous creaking of the destabilized plane had finally snapped them to attention.

While Bowselta and Junior ripped at the seatbelts that held them in their seats, the others – who had already unbuckled themselves – sprung into action. Roy dashed into the hallway as Emerald pulled Crystal to her feet and followed him. Vaulting out of the lowered front section of the bridge Morton followed them, nearly slipping on the puddle of Crystal's motion-sickness puke and making a mental note that despite her vertical snowmobile track back home, the girl probably wasn't a roller-coaster person.

-Back Hallway-

"Ludwig! Ludwig!" Bowser rounded the corner as Iggy sent another volley of electricity at the closed door to the Engine Room, adding the stream of fire Lemmy had aimed at its hinges.

"The explosion caused it to seal automatically and it won't open again," said Iggy desperately as Bowser pushed past him to face the door directly.

"I told her those Shy Guy 'safety features' were a mistake!" growled Bowser, before tackling the door.

"That won't work: it's magically reinforced – we have to weaken the connection points first," said Iggy, wringing his hands as Bowser staggered back from the door and began to help Lemmy blast at the edges. "I don't know why it's not working. It might have been fused by the explosion – it was an energy conduit that blew, or maybe it got crunched in the crash like the front door, or-"

"Stop yammering and help us!" bellowed Bowser.

-Front Hallway-

"Keep going," urged Emerald, shoving Crystal ahead of her as she herself paused at the doorway to the storage area. Crystal obediently disappeared down the hall as Emerald ripped open the hatch and jumped inside, the door nearly being knocked closed behind her as Morton barreled out of the bridge.

"There's no time to get your stuff!" admonished Bowselta as she and Junior rushed into the hallway.

"I'm not leaving my bag!" said Emerald, slinging an old schoolbus-yellow bag across her body. "It's got all my stuff," she said as she ran back to Bowselta, who continued down the hallway as soon as she saw that her friend was coming too.

-Waist-

Having heard Bowselta's scream, Larry and Wendy had pulled open the hatch, but quailed at the sight of the lava bubbling up beneath them.

"What're you guys waitin' for?" demanded Roy, skidding to a halt.

"But the lava-" began Larry.

"Is meltin' da plane! _I_ ain't goin' down wid it, so if _you're_ just gonna stand dere, get outta _my_ way!" With that, he pushed his way past his siblings and leapt out of the _Seven_. The piece of rock he landed on bobbed deeper into the lava, but he didn't dwell on that, and instead, started his dash across the lava. There was another old tunnel directly ahead, sloping up and away from the pool, and Roy had a feeling the ground there would be solid. Though _anything_ better than the area around the _Seven_ would be an improvement, really.

Wendy and Larry were both lighter than their large, muscular brother and the fact that he made the jump gave them enough confidence to follow, one-by-one. Crystal faltered at first, but Morton's angry "hey!" forced her to jump out of the doorway – sure she was scared, but that was no excuse to prevent the others from escaping. She yelped in surprise at the warm rocks, which seemed boiling hot to her snow-dweller's feet. Biting her lip, she jumped over the first crack, eyeing the red-orange lava in wide-eyed fear. Suddenly, the rock she was standing on bobbed sharply as Morton plopped down behind her onto the first rock.

Screaming, Crystal lost her balance. "Sorry!" cried Morton behind her, lunging forwards and planting his hands into the back of her shell to keep her from falling backwards.

"Thanks," gasped Crystal, looking back at Morton who grinned toothily.

"We gotta go!" He jumped onto a rock beside Crystal's, trying to step as lightly as he could. "Just pretend it's hopscotch. You every played hopscotch? I suppose it would be hard since you guys don't really have clear pavement up in Westpole, but I guess you could always just carve the squares into the snow…" Morton didn't bother waiting for responses as he hopped over the cracks in the ground; he had a feeling Crystal was too freaked out to answer anyway – which she was. Her hair became plastered to her face by sweat as she followed Morton's progress, too busy staring at the fragmented ground beneath his feet to hear a word that came out of his mouth.

Junior was the next out of the _Seven_. Confident that his small size meant there was no risk of him breaking through the surface, he darted across the lava as fast as he could run, swiftly overtaking Morton and Crystal as he picked his own way to safety.

From the doorway, Bowselta could see that Roy, Larry and Wendy had already made it to the tunnel, where they stood waiting for the other three Dragon-Koopas running across the lava field. She heard Iggy and Lemmy taking turns calling Ludwig's name in the back of the _Seven_, and turned away from the hatch.

"What are you doing?" demanded Emerald.

"They need help," said Bowselta, but before she could take two steps, she felt Emerald's hand on her shoulder.

"Bowser's there-"

"They need _me_," snapped Bowselta, jerking out of Emerald's grasp, only to have her arm seized instead and pulled back.

"So do they." Emerald tossing her head in the direction of the hatch. "They're doing everything they can back there – you told me yourself that Bowser's the strongest and most powerful-"

"But the energy's unstable. The entire plane could explode-"

"Which is why you can't be on it," said Emerald, squeezing Bowselta's wrist as tight as she could to keep her friend from breaking free. "Think of the kids out there – won't it be bad enough if they lose their father and brothers, but their mother too? You can't do that to them!"

Bowselta and Emerald stared at each-other, neither giving an inch until finally the Queen of the Koopas relented. "You're right," she sighed, closing her eyes and turning back towards Emerald and the hatch.

"No trying anything funny, now – you're jumping first," Emerald smirked at Bowselta, hunching down into a fighting stance between her friend and the back hallway.

"Thanks," said Bowselta, smiling sadly before she abandoned ship.

_What are friends for?_ thought Emerald to herself with a small smile, casting one last look down the hall before jumping through the door herself.

-Engine Room-

Ludwig opened his eyes to a darkened room and pain all over his body. He had been unconscious since the explosion, but gathered there must have been a spectacular crash by the amount of destruction around him, barely visible in the feeble glow of a single surviving emergency light. He ached all over, and there was blood trickling into his eyes and mouth from some sort of head wound; he probably had a concussion. His right side stung from the energy burns, but he had had worse, and compared to the stabbing pain in his right leg – which was pinned under something heavy – the welts seemed like nothing at all.

"Ludwig! Ludwig!"

It took the eldest Koopaling a minute to recover his senses enough to realize he was being called. "Iggy?" he coughed, craning his neck to look up at the hatch. "Iggy!"

"LUDWIG!" Iggy was overjoyed. "Thank Koopa you're alive! Are you hurt? – I mean – how bad is it?"

"I dunno! Everysing hurts but I'm not sure…" Ludwig was lucky: raw magical energy like the stuff used in the _Seven_ did not damage living creatures nearly as much as it did inanimate objects because of their own energy auras. So while there had been enough buildup of unstable energy flow to blow up the conduit, the released energy only hurt Ludwig as much as a minor electrical shock or some low-power fireballs. As he had suspected, the majority of his injuries came from the crash, as his unconscious form had been tossed around the engine room with the debris like a rag doll. Dragon-Koopas were tough, however, and the only thing Ludwig really worried about was if his shell was cracked, so he tried puling out his wand from hammerspace.

While it took some effort (the raw energy had destabilized his magic to a small extent, but it was nothing that time couldn't fix), he soon held his wand in his hand. Sighing in relief, he called back to Iggy and the others. "I sink I'm okay!"

"Great!" called Lemmy.

"We're trying to get you out!" continued Iggy. "The door's stuck, though, can you see any reason why?"

With a grunt, Ludwig managed to force his wand tip to light up. He was lying on the floor with his head towards the door, so it wasn't the best angle, but he could still see the damage done by the energy. "It seems to have been velded shut by zee explosion." He looked around at the rest of the room: the energy had done a lot of damage; the intercom was melted and there was debris everywhere, including the large piece of twisted metal that lay across Ludwig's legs and tail. Scanning the wall of piping, Ludwig saw that quite a few of the smaller pipes had been broken open; some seemed melted away, some were smashed apart, and others looked as if they had been sliced open by hunks of shrapnel.

All the gauges had been destroyed, but Ludwig didn't need them to realize that something was wrong. Even though the engine was shut off, some of the pipes were shuddering, and he could even hear the nearly inaudible whine of increasingly unstable energy forcing its way through hairline fractures in the metal.

"Get out!" He screamed through the door. "Zee engine's about to explode, get out NOW!"

"NOT WITHOUT YOU!" roared Bowser, smashing against the door once more.

"Zee energy has been destabilized – it is flowing and building up pressure, and soon it vill reach zee tipping point! Zere vill be a catastrophic meltdown in zee pipes, allowing for zee energy to form a feedback loop, causing a chain reaction zat vill-"

"I DON'T CARE!" roared Bowser, pelting the door with lightning.

"But zee entire plane vill explode!"

Lemmy and Iggy blasted the door with the hottest flames they could in attempt to cut through the metal before Ludwig's prophesized apocalypse could occur. Impervious to the heat, Bowser surrounded himself with electricity and began tackling the door in earnest.

"You'll all die!" beseeched Ludwig.

Bowser's response was broken up between each hit: "I – DON'T – CARE!" The last word had barely left his lips when Bowser finally broke through the hatch in a blaze of lightning and fire.

Ludwig's face broke into a grin. "I don't believe it!"

"Let's get you outta here," said Bowser jumping to his son's side as Iggy rushed to tend to the engine.

"My leg – it's pinned," said Ludwig, indicating with his wand before looking towards Iggy and the engine.

Bowser immediately reached forward and lifted the metal away. From the doorway, Lemmy gasped. "Your leg – it's _gone_!"

Ludwig turned his attention back to his right leg to see that Lemmy was indeed correct: the limb had been severed just above the knee during the crash. As Ludwig raised the bloody stump into the air for a better look, a goofy smile split his face. "You're right – it _is_ gone! Zat explains zee pain – and I sought it vas simply crushed! I vonder vere zee leg is amongst all zis debris, heh heh…"

"Er, you're obviously in no state to walk, so I'll just-" As Ludwig chuckled deliriously, Bowser reached forward and seized him under the arms, pulling him off the ground and swinging him over his shoulder. Ludwig's wand fell out of his slackened grip as Bowser carried him out of the engine room.

Lemmy stepped aside to let them by, but when Iggy didn't follow, he stuck his head back through the doorway. "Aren't you coming?"

"It's too late to prevent an explosion, but if I can vent some of the energy, I think I can buy them enough time to get a safe distance away before it blows," muttered Iggy, fiddling with every working valve within reach. Bowser had told them that the plane was sitting on a bed of lava as they attempted to blast through the door, and while neither Koopaling let this deter them from staying and saving their brother, it was now foremost in Iggy's mind. The explosion would surely destabilize the entire lava field, meaning anyone nearby could find the ground crumble beneath their feet: he couldn't let that happen to Bowser and Ludwig.

Unfortunately, most of the piping was unusable, and the connections that did work still needed to be jerry-rigged and forced by hand. Holding one such valve closed, Iggy strained to grab a piece of scrap metal to block off a leak he hadn't realized was present until he wrenched open the passageway, ruining the valve. It would not lock closed again, so Iggy had to hold it closed and prevent the energy from spilling out into the room, but he couldn't just stand there, and he knew fixing the hole would be easy if he could just reach the scrap metal.

Seeing he could use a hand, Lemmy rushed forward scooped up the metal. "Tell me what to do."

-Outside-

The Koopas on the shore gasped as a small geyser of energy appeared over the engine room. Bowselta knew it was just one of the emergency vents, but it still wasn't a good sign: purging the energy was a very dangerous and desperate move. "Look!" cried Morton as Bowser appeared in the _Seven_'s hatchway with Ludwig. Bowselta breathed a sigh of relief, but the fact that Bowser was carrying the eldest Koopaling still put her at unease.

The King of the Koopas leapt from the doorway, but the combined weight of two adult Dragon-Koopas was too much for the rock he landed on, which tilted backwards, allowing lava to spill onto Bowser's heels.

"Vatch it!" cried Ludwig as Bowser wavered through the air, nearly falling backwards, just as Crystal had nearly done mere minutes beforehand.

"Stop squirming! That isn't helping!" growled Bowser, struggling to keep a good grip on his son as he flailed what was left of his lower limbs in an attempt to bring Bowser's center of gravity forwards – and away from the lava. Miraculously, the king managed to regain his balance, and ignoring the blistering pain in his feet, started running towards shore. But even sticking to the largest rocks, Bowser put his foot through a few more times. _Why'd it have to be my _adult_ son who lost his _leg_?_ He thought, gritting his teeth. _Why not Junior? Or skinny little Larry? Even Iggy would have been easier going_…

-Engine Room-

"Okay," said Iggy, closing another unlockable valve. "We've done as much as we can."

"Great, then let's get outta here," said Lemmy.

Iggy shook his head. "Someone's gotta stay and make sure this stays shut – if it reopens, we'll only have a couple seconds left before it blows. Ludwig and King Dad need more time, so I'll hold it as long as I can and-"

"I should hold it," said Lemmy, stepping forwards and grabbing hold of the wheel that controlled the valve.

"What? No! Hey, stop it!" Iggy struggled to keep a hold on the valve as Lemmy tried to squeeze him out of the way with his body.

"I can run faster than you, Iggs. No offense, but you couldn't make it out of here in a couple seconds."

"Sure I could," said Iggy.

Lemmy raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Okay… Maybe you're right, but I can't just let you-"

"Tell you what. I'll count backwards from twenty, and then I'll wedge this thing in this position using this piece of scrap-" Using his foot, Lemmy managed to scoop a section of piping off the floor. He reached down and grabbed it, mashing it into the wheel at such an angle that if the wheel tried to spin it would knock the scrap into a perpendicular section of piping, locking itself almost entirely closed.

"That won't be good enough-"

"It'll still buy me an extra second or two, right? Not that I'll need it, mind, you – I'm just doing this to make you feel better. King Dad should be plenty of distance away by the time I've finished my countdown, and even _you_ aren't slow enough to still be in the blast range by then," Lemmy winked mischievously at his brother, before hip-checking him away from the valve.

"Hey! Now wait just a minute-"

"Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen. – You better get going, cuz I'm not waiting. – Sixteen. Fifteen."

"Stop it! Let me hold the valve. I won't let you risk your neck for me too-"

"Don't be silly! I can make it out of here in time – you can't: staying here would be suicide for you, and then Ludwig would have risked his neck for nothing. Don't let his leg's sacrifice be in vain!" Lemmy wasn't being entirely serious with that last line, but the humour was lost on Iggy. "Now, where was I? Oh yeah: fourteen. Thirteen."

Growling in frustration, Iggy turned and ran for the door. Lemmy did have a point: it would be foolish of Iggy to die for his pride. It still didn't stop him from feeling like a useless worm, however, and Iggy knew that if Lemmy died that day, he'd never be able to live with himself.

"Twelve. Eleven. Ten…" Counting backwards brought back memories of playing hide-and-seek and tag with Iggy and the other Koopalings. Lemmy missed those days: their childhood was never truly carefree, but there was still a simple happiness to that time. Back when fighting for their lives against Mario was something to be enjoyed, back when girls had cooties and "drat" was the worst word in their vocabularies, back when they felt like they'd never grow up. He missed painting each other's shells fantastic colours with shell dye; he missed swinging from the chandeliers; he missed rolling around on his rubber ball.

"…Six. Five…"

Lemmy had been preparing for adulthood for years. He still had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, or whether or not he wanted to get formal education at the University of Koopa, or other such details, but he thought he would at least be able to handle the big stuff.

Big stuff like seeing his brother lose a leg.

Big stuff like killing someone.

"…Three. Tw-" Without warning, one of Iggy's patch-jobs came lose, allowing a stream of whistling energy to shoot out of the pipe in front of Lemmy. Jumping out of harm's way, Lemmy released the valve, watching as it slammed the scrap metal he stuck in the wheel's spokes into the perpendicular pipe, slicing it open with ease before flinging the scrap across the room as it continued spinning open. "Shit!" cried Lemmy, sprinting out of the room as the energy started to spark. He was still in the hallway when the first explosion rocked the plane, and the next one, and the next one.

The blast wall between him and the engine room kept him from being fried, but when he reached the waist, the front hatch to the engine room was blown clear off its hinges, filling the compartment with fire and light. Planting his feet on the metal, using his claws to bring him to a screeching halt, Lemmy twisted his body away from the danger and leapt through the outer hatch. He had barely cleared the _7-Koopa-7_ when it finally exploded in its entirety, the shockwave blasting Lemmy through the air with the shrapnel.

Ludwig and Bowser had almost reached safety, but as pieces of airplane spun towards them, the King took his son's alarmed scream as a cue to duck. Ripping Ludwig off his shoulder, Bowser threw the two of them down onto the ground, doing his best to cover his son's body with his own and hoping his shell would be enough to deflect anything that hit them. They were lucky: only a couple pieces of metal ricocheted off Bowser's shell, though a few larger chunks slammed into the lava around them. The final blow to the head was too much for Ludwig, however, and he passed out cold where he lay. "Ludwig?" Bowser grabbed his son's arms in panic, fearing the worst. "_Ludwig!_"

Lemmy spiraled above the scene, even soaring over the heads of the onlooking Dragon-Koopas before coming back down. He hit the ground hard, tumbling head over tail a couple times before finally coming to a stop in the darkened tunnel, where he lay motionless and oblivious to the world. Out in the field, Iggy was screaming and writing in agony, having been knocked into a puddle of lava by the shockwave. Behind him, the flaming wreckage of the _7-Koopa-7_ slowly sank beneath the molten rocks.


	11. Rock Bottom

**A/N: Before I move on, I feel the need for an anti-disclaimer: when I came up with the "evil humans invading an alien world" idea (which gets a fair bit of attention in this next chapter), all I knew about **_**Avatar**_** was that it starred naked blue aliens. I rip off a lot of things in my stories, but that movie is not one of them. If anything, these next few chapters are (inadvertently) leeching themes from **_**Neon Genesis Evangelion**_**, which I was watching non-stop at the time of writing, so if things get kinda emo, you know what's to blame.**

Chapter 10: Rock Bottom

Iggy froze at the sight of his misshapen brother, lying on a bare slab of rock with Crystal's winter coat bundled up under his head and another wad of clothing cushioning what was left of his right leg. Blood had soaked through the bandages Emerald had wrapped the stump with the day before, but she didn't have enough supplies to keep changing them, and had merely propped the leg upwards to try and lessen the amount of blood Ludwig lost. Another bandage was wrapped around the base of Ludwig's tail, since the piece of shrapnel that claimed his leg had also left him with a deep gash which, had it been a few inches higher up on his body, would have severed his digestive and reproductive systems. He was lucky, but Iggy was still mortified by the flesh wounds, and hovered by the outcropping of rock that separated Ludwig's corner from the open tunnel.

"It's not as bad as it looks," said Ludwig, as if he had read his brother's mind. He opened his eyes and smiled weakly at Iggy, but the shadows on his face betrayed the truth: he was in incredible pain.

When Iggy failed to respond, Ludwig sighed. "Zee bleeding let up hours ago, but Emerald vants to vait a bit longer before changing zee bandages again – just in case it opens zem back up. I doubt it vill, sough: zee effects of zee energy blast vore off last night, vitch vas zee only reason I vas bleeding like a sieve yesterday." Ludwig waved a hand over his bloody figure for emphasis. The Dragon-Koopas had barely any drinking water, and so they had no choice but to leave Ludwig covered from head to toe in blood and grime. Only his face, chest and right upper-arm were clean, having been wiped down with burn heal. Still, the matted, bloody hair that framed his face ensured that no matter how Iggy looked at his brother, he looked like a mess. And it was all his fault.

"I see your belly's fully healed as vell," observed Ludwig, hoping that would get Iggy to speak to him.

Iggy looked furtively down at his stomach. "They told you… About _that_," he observed, his cheeks reddening.

"About how you got knocked into some lava by zee explosion?"

"About how Roy had to come and get me!" Iggy blurted out. "The burns weren't even that serious, but I couldn't- I-" Iggy cut himself off, too ashamed to admit how much it had hurt when Ludwig had suffered ten times worse. "Roy put his feet through the rocks hauling me back to shore – multiple times."

"And by now, zose burns are healed, just like my burns, and your burns, and Fazzer's burns – just be glad you're not fat like me-"

"You're not fat," protested Iggy.

"I'm not szin eizzer," said Ludwig frankly, patting his belly, which was only slightly less rotund than Bowser's. "And my added veight put Fazzer's _entire leg_ srough zee crust and into zee lava a number of times vile he vas carrying me to shore."

"That's not your fault… If anything, it's my fault," murmured Iggy. "If you hadn't pushed me out of the way-"

"Zen vee _bosz_ vould have been caught in zee explosion and vee _bosz_ vould have been trapped inside zee engine room during zee crash and who knows vat vould have happened zen! Maybe I vould have lost an arm instead of a leg, or perhaps the shrapnel vould have _beheaded_ vone of us!"

"But if I had been paying more attention I could have stopped the explosion-"

Ludwig shook his head. "Zere vas nossing you could have done."

"Well, then, I could have jumped out of the way on my own. Then I wouldn't've been blocking the door and you could have escaped and-"

"Zere vas no time," insisted Ludwig.

"Yes there was!" Iggy cried, finally moving away from the outcropping and pacing around Ludwig's chamber. "I'm sure of it! If I had only reacted faster, you'd be okay. And then King Dad wouldn't gotten burned carrying you back, and Lemmy wouldn't had to say behind and…" Iggy turned to Ludwig, his eyes round. "Did they tell you about _Lemmy_?"

"Emerald said he vas fine, except his neck is going to be a bit sore from zee rough landing for a couple days, so he's going to need some massage serapy. But betveen us, I sink Emerald's looking forward to _zat_."

Iggy was too upset for Ludwig's comment to sink in. "He stayed behind to give me more time to run away! I'm so useless: all my big brothers have to put their lives on the line because I'm too oblivious, or too slow, or too wussy to save my own skin!"

"You're _not_ useless," said Ludwig firmly. "Vizzout you, vee all vould have died-"

"Everything we did to fix the engine, you could've done on your own," argued Iggy.

"Even if zat vere true – vich it _isn't_ – it would have taken me too long if I vere vorking alone; vee vould have been shot out of zee sky-"

"We _were_ shot out of the sky."

"Vell, zat _is_ true, but zen vee vould have crashed-"

"We _did_ crash!"

"Let me finish," huffed Ludwig. "If I vere vorking alone, I never could have gotten zee _Seven_ out of free-fall. I could not have jerry-rigged zee engines fast enough and vee vould have smashed nose-first into zee ground vit enough force to totally crush zee fuselage-"

"Actually, we would have crashed into a pool of lava if we didn't pull up," reported Iggy, having been told the full story of the day before from the people who had been on the bridge.

"Zat's still just as deadly," said Ludwig. "I needed you – vee all needed you."

"Yeah, but-"

"No 'buts'," ordered Ludwig. "Vee're alive because of you."

"Because of me you're- you're-" Iggy gestured wildly down at Ludwig. "Like _this_!"

"No, it's because of zee _humans_ I'm like zis," said Ludwig. "It's zee people trying to kill us who are responsible for everysing zat has transpired here: it's _zeir_ fault, not yours." Ludwig thought back to the night before, when he first woke up in a haze of Emerald's painkillers to find Bowselta in tears, apologizing profusely for crashing the plane. Like Iggy, she blamed herself for Ludwig's lost limb, for if she had seen the stalactite, she was convinced she could have prevented the uncontrolled crash-landing. Like Iggy, Ludwig knew she was wrong: if it hadn't been the stalactite, it would have been a stalagmite, or a different stalactite, or a rocky outcropping, or any number of obstacles in the narrow black tunnel.

"But Roy and Lemmy-"

"Had no choice in vat zey did – none of us did. If vee had not done everysing vee could to protect zee people vee love, how could vee live vit ourselves? You feel _so_ guilty because of a few burns, a case of viplash and a leg zat can be regrown with a single flask of Revitalizing Potion-"

"Like we'll ever get our hands on _that_," snorted Iggy, knowing full well that the humans probably had every Magikoopa village guarded from there to Rogueport.

"So I'll have to learn to valk vit a peg-leg – I don't care. All I _do_ care about is zat you – and all zee ozzers – are _alive_. I'd rather have _bosz_ my legs cut off zan let any of you die, and I'm sure Roy, Lemmy, Muzzer, Fazzer and everyvone else feels zee same vay – including you."

"Of course! I'd do anything to save you guys!" Iggy dropped to his knees beside his brother, clutching onto the edge of the rock Ludwig lay upon, trying as hard as he could to keep his voice from cracking. "I'd… I'd do anything to undo what happened to you and Lemmy and Roy…"

"Zen you understand me ven I tell you zat vee could not have acted any ozzer vay zan how vee acted yesterday," said Ludwig, his eyes locked on Iggy's as he tried to get his message through. He had asked to speak to Iggy because he knew the younger Koopaling was suffering, and only Ludwig could put his soul at ease. "Vee risked our lives to save yours because if you died ven vee could have prevented it, vee vould _never_ forgive ourselves. I have no regrets about vat happened in zat engine room, and neizzer should you."

Iggy couldn't take it any more and tore his gaze from Ludwig's, squeezing his eyes shut as his body began to tremble with repressed sobs. Ludwig smiled sadly and reached out with his exhausted arm, pulling Iggy forward and letting him bury his face in the soft belly scales of his brother's chest, where he finally broke down and cried.

-xxx-

"What are _you_ looking at?" snarled Wendy.

"Um, n- nothing," stammered Larry. "I was just-"

"Get out of my way!" Wendy pushed Larry aside, storming away down the tunnel.

"What was that about?"

Larry jumped as Crystal appeared at his elbow from one of the small tunnels leading off of the main pathways.

"Um, I was just walking and I guess I looked at her funny…" Larry wondered if he was now looking at _Crystal_ funny: she had ditched her baggy pants to cope with the heat, and while her dress covered everything down to her knees, it was still a distraction for poor Larry. When Crystal complained about the temperature that morning, Junior snarkily told her to go in the nude like the rest of them. Blushing, she responded that having spent her entire life fully clothed in others' presence, like her Shy Guy friends, being exposed like that would be even more uncomfortable than the volcanic conditions. She had lovely legs, and Larry couldn't help but wonder what the girl was hiding under her dress, but he knew if he told her that was on his mind, he'd never find out. Instead, he quickly told her more about his sister. "I guess she's still mad at me for yesterday…"

"Mad at you? Why, what happened?"

"Well, she kinda freaked out a bit when that plane smashed into us, and she doesn't like it when people see her like that… It's embarrassing."

"I know the feeling," murmured Crystal, thinking back to the puddle of puke she had left on the bridge of the _Seven_ and feeling her face grow warm. "Anyway, you don't happen to know where Roy is, do you?"

"_Roy?_" Larry felt like he had been punched in the gut.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to him all morning, but I can't find him anywhere…" Crystal unconsciously rubbed her arm as she spoke, her head bowed shyly so that her hair hid her eyes from Larry's view. Though it hurt, he knew what he had to do.

"I saw him a few minutes ago… He was heading down the lower set of tunnels with Morton… It's pretty maze-like, but we can probably listen for Morton and find Roy that way…"

Crystal looked up and beamed at Larry. "Sounds like a plan! Let's go!" She promptly started off in the direction Wendy had disappeared, with Larry lagging a half step behind her. He wondered if they'd run into Wendy, but they reached the main tunnel without seeing her. Bowser Jr. was the only one in sight, which surprised Larry since both Emerald and Bowser had been there just a few minutes previously. He looked over at the hollow where Ludwig was holed up, but he didn't hear any voices – even Iggy had fallen silent, which Larry actually preferred to the tortured ramblings that had been emanating from the room before. That was the main reason he decided to go for a walk – he didn't feel right overhearing Iggy spilling his guys to Ludwig; he wondered if Bowser and Emerald had felt the same way, though he wasn't surprised Junior had stayed.

"I wonder where Wendy went," mused Crystal as they crossed the chamber.

"We could ask Junior…" muttered Larry.

"He doesn't look like he's in a very good mood either," whispered Crystal. "Let's leave him be."

"Okay," agreed Larry.

Junior glared at the pair; he hated it when people looked at him and whispered; he knew they were saying all sorts of mean, judgmental things.

Unaware of his younger brother's paranoid speculation, Larry continued to speak quietly to Crystal, keeping his voice down out of embarrassment. "So… why do you want to talk to Roy?"

"Oh, you know…" smiled Crystal dreamily.

_Not really,_ thought Larry dejectedly.

"Yesterday was really awful… With all those guys being hurt… I think Roy was really great for helping them so much."

"I helped too," said Larry.

Sensing the bitterness in his voice, Crystal hurried to fix her wrong. "Oh- I- I mean… Of course, we- we all helped. But he did the most, I think. Besides my mum, that is… Um, not to sound egotistical…" Crystal winced. "Sorry… you must think I'm awful."

"I don't think that…" said Larry quietly.

Crystal smiled sheepishly and fell silent, worried she would just hurt Larry's feelings even more if she kept rambling. Instead, she thought back to the day before. While Bowselta rushed to help Bowser with Ludwig, and Emerald made sure Lemmy hadn't broken his neck when he landed, Roy had ran out to help Iggy. He burnt both his feet, but he refused to let anyone tend to them until Iggy, Ludwig and even Bowser had their burns treated with the burn heal. Unlike Iggy, who babied his wounds, Roy seemed immune to the pain as he helped the adults. Bowser, Bowselta and Emerald all tended to Ludwig, bandaging up the worst of his injuries as fast as they could so that he wouldn't bleed out as they moved him into the tunnel. They had to get away from the crash site, lest the humans converged on it and found them. Bowser carried Ludwig, with Bowselta supporting his head and Emerald minding the remains of his right leg. Roy alone carried Lemmy the entire way; they were walking for nearly three hours before Bowselta felt they were deep enough within the mazelike network of tunnels to make camp.

Roy, Morton, Larry and Bowser Jr. immediately set off, exploring the surrounding tunnels to make sure there were no dangerous creatures about, and search for either food or water. They didn't return until night, having found nothing but rocks and lava for miles in any direction. A few people had food on them, including both Crystal and Emerald, but since they would be stuck in the barren volcanic tunnels for a while, they couldn't spare very much for dinner. Roy refused to have any food at all: insisting his share be saved for Ludwig, who hadn't been well enough to eat the few times he had woken up because of both a serious concussion and the nauseating pain of losing a limb. As the night wore on and everyone else dropped off to sleep, Roy, Bowser and Bowselta all stayed awake to watch over the group.

Crystal really admired Roy, but she was also worried he was pushing himself too hard. By the time she had woken up, he was off exploring again – this time on his own. She wanted to follow him, but she was too afraid to venture far into the volcanic passages alone and so she asked Wendy to come with her. The female Koopaling took her up on the offer to get away from the smell of Ludwig's blood that permeated the camp, but she wasn't in an exploratory mood, and progress was slow. Crystal was sort of glad Larry had replaced Wendy, since he knew his way around the lower tunnels from the day before, and silently led Crystal deeper into the belly of the mountain, following the faint echoing of Morton's voice. She would have asked him to come with her in the first place, but she knew he'd get the wrong idea about her gesture.

-x-

Farther down the tunnel, Roy and Morton had already overtaken their quarry: Lemmy. The lanky Koopaling was cooped up in a large open chamber staring at the magma cascading down from a hole in the ceiling into a pool a few meters below his perch. The mouth of the tunnel was about midway between the pool and the ledge Lemmy sat upon, which was reachable via a series of other rocky outcroppings wrapping around the inside of the chamber. Lemmy wasn't directly opposite the tunnel, and so he wasn't obscured by the "magmafall" – as Morton swiftly dubbed the cascade of molten rock – but he still ignored the other Koopalings' attempts to talk to him. Eventually, Roy got fed up and followed his brother up to the ledge.

"Bit hot up here, ain't it?" he observed as he sat down beside Lemmy.

"I don't mind."

"Yeah, well, yer weird. Whatcha doin' down here, anyway? Pops was wonderin' about where ya ran off to."

"We've been looking for you all morning. Well, not _all_ morning… Only the past couple hours, since we realized you were missing. We were looking in the upper tunnels, though. Then I got hungry and we came back to the main tunnel, but King Dad wouldn't give me any food. Then he and Emerald – who was also in the main tunnel when we got there, along with Larry – left to look for Mom and told us to look for you some more. Fortunately, Junior told us you came down here, and we caught on to your trail and tracked you down easy-peasy after that."

"Sorry," said Lemmy morosely. "I told Wendy I was going for a walk when I woke up, but I guess she didn't pass on the message. I didn't mean to cause any worry."

Roy frowned. "Ya still didn't answer my question: whatcha doin' down here?"

"I just wanted to be alone for a little…"

"Why?" asked Roy.

"I didn't want anyone to fuss over me."

"Ya nearly broke yer neck."

"Ludwig lost his leg."

"Dat don't mean you have ta be in pain too."

"I'm not in pain."

Using his lightning-fast reflexes, Roy reached out and wrapped one of his hands around the back of Lemmy's skinny neck. He made sure not to grip too hard, but Lemmy still yelped as the muscles twinged beneath Roy's fingers. "Liar," growled Roy, releasing his brother.

"Why does everyone keep doing that?" muttered Lemmy darkly, rubbing his neck. "First Emerald, now my own brother…"

"If it's da only way ta get 'trough to ya, we're gonna _keep_ doin' it, so stop actin' like a baby."

"Hey, wait a minute," commented Morton from the other side of the chamber. "Wouldn't a baby be acting the opposite of him? Y'know, being all whiney and hamming up the pain and all that? Like Junior that time he-"

"He's a different kind o' baby," said Roy, glowering at Lemmy. "Whetha yer cryin' all over us or runnin' off ta cry on da inside, it still does no one no good. Yer neck'll heal faster wid Emerald's help, so take it." At this point, Larry and Crystal caught up to the group, and hovered in the doorway beside Morton, who signaled them to be quiet. They did as they were told: even though she had barely met the Koopalings, Crystal knew that if Morton was keeping his mouth shut, something really important was happening. Lemmy looked over at the new arrivals, but Roy ignored them and pressed on. "Dere's no tellin' when we're gonna meet more humans, so we'll need everyone ta be ready ta fight. Ludwig's outta commission – dere's no helpin' dat, but _you_ can be fixed."

Lemmy hugged his knees and stared into the lava, murmuring something that even Morton's bat-like hearing couldn't pick up, so he asked for some clarification: "What?"

When Lemmy didn't answer, Roy grabbed him again, this time by the arm to yank him out of his fetal position. "What'd. You. Say?" he asked menacingly.

"I said _I don't want to fight_!" cried Lemmy, now on his hands and knees, his head slightly below Roy's. He pulled himself back upright and looked away from his brother, back at the lava with his arms once again around his legs. "Not anymore…" he murmured, loud enough for everyone to hear him this time.

"You ain't got a choice," said Roy emotionlessly.

"Besides, remember when we were little and we couldn't wait to go out and fight Mario? Sure this is a little different, since they've got guns, but hey! Remember the time we took over Jewelry Land? Mario had a gun then too, and that didn't stop us from striking back! Remember? And that was for another country – this is for Dark Land! Our home and our friends… And our stuff…" Morton smiled hopefully at Lemmy, but the other Koopaling wasn't moved.

"You don't understand… I- I can't do it anymore. I never- I never-" Lemmy pulled his head back behind his legs, his eyes closed tight as he tried not to cry – Roy already thought he was a baby: he couldn't cry now. "I never _killed_ anyone before!" He looked up at Roy, anger mixed with the sadness in his face. "I never _wanted_ to kill anyone!" He turned back to the lava, the words now tumbling out of his mouth. "When we were little I liked to fight Mario because it was exiting and if I didn't do it I'd feel stupid and you guys'd make fun of me. Especially _you_, Roy: you'd never let me live it down. And I couldn't let King Dad down either, and Kamek and everyone- But I was scared! I was always scared: part of me never wanted to do it. Causing mischief was one thing, but lots of people died when we invaded places. It was always Mario doing the killing, though: I wanted to stop him, but I never could. I doubt I could have even killed him if I had the chance. I tried not to be a baby, but I was…" Lemmy's voice cracked. "And I still am. I'm a coward. I'm not a Koopaling – I'm a w-w-w-WEAKling."

Roy looked at his brother coolly. "Nice word-play. Is dat what you've been doin' down here all dis time? Makin' up clever shit like dat?"

Crystal gasped. "R-Roy," calling his name gave her butterflies in her stomach; she just wished she wasn't following it with some second-guessing of his actions. "Don't you think you're being a little hard on him?"

"No," said Roy flatly. "_He's_ da one who's being too hard on him." Grammar wasn't Roy's strong suit, but neither was offering his siblings this level of non-abrasive attention, and Lemmy looked back to his brother in confusion. "Ya blew up da fourth human plane," intoned Roy; Lemmy had told everyone about it when he woke up the night before – even then it was obvious he wasn't proud of it, but Roy had no idea how much it had shaken the older Koopaling. "Dat was da right 'ting ta do."

"No it wasn't!" insisted Lemmy, looking back to the lava; the harsh red-orange glow didn't burn his eyes as much as Roy's gaze. He couldn't even see Roy's eyes – for all he knew, Roy wasn't even looking at him behind those sunglasses – he simply couldn't face his brother.

"Dey were tryin' ta kill us."

"But they were _done_ killing us by that point: we were going down and they were flying away. I killed them out of- of spite! Out of anger! I- …They hurt Wendy… I could hear her screaming; I could hear Iggy screaming too – they hurt Ludwig… They hurt Kammy…"

"So you wanted to avenge dem-" shrugged Roy, but Lemmy cut him off.

"Killing people for revenge is wrong," he growled, his nails digging into his legs. "Killing for anger is wrong. Killing for spite is wrong. _Killing _is wrong!"

"We ain't da killers here. It's da humans who are da bad guys. You said so yerself: we did nuttin' to dem, and dey invaded our world and dey hurt our people – our family. Killin' dem means dey can't kill us – ain't dat what you said you always wanted? Ta stop Mario?"

"The pilot of the plane wasn't Mario," said Lemmy. "He was just some guy following orders."

"He was a soldia – he knew what he was signin' up fer when he agreed ta dis mission: ta invade an alien planet and kill innocent people fo' no reason. He ain't Mario: he's worse dan Mario." In his head. Roy knew he was probably being a bit hard on the pilot, but if it got Lemmy out of his funk, he didn't care. Propaganda and the military went hand-in-hand, after all.

"He was _flying away_," said Lemmy.

"Yeah, ta tell his boss where ta find us."

"He's right!" Morton couldn't resist speaking any longer. "We were blocking the planes' transmissions during the entire fight and a bit before too, so the last thing they could have radioed to their base was that they encountered us – not that they shot us down. All the humans know is that we shot down all their airplanes – they don't know that we went down too, and hopefully they'll assume that the fact their guys all died meant that we survived intact. They're probably still out looking for the _7-Koopa-7_; it's none too hospitable around here, so it's not like they'll be jumping at the opportunity to go crawling around the lava tunnels. They don't have dragon or even Koopa blood to protect them against the heat…" Morton looked at the "magmafall" when he said this; it was searing hot in the chamber but the Koopalings were used to temperatures like that.

Crystal, however, was not. "They're smart: it's _awful_ down here," she panted, her hair plastered against her face, which was drenched in salty sweat. She had tried to keep her composure, especially with Roy there, but the heat was starting to get to her.

To her surprise, Roy smiled grimly at her undignified condition. "So Lemmy, you can eida stay here and slow-roast yerself as punishment for killin' a murdering sonofabitch and savin' our asses, or you can do us _all_ a favour and let us take you back up ta dis poor girl's Ma so she can fix yer neck."

Lemmy still didn't move.

Roy stood up, sighing. "Fine den. Be dat way. But when ya do come up, don't go lookin' fer sympaty when Emerald gets mad at you fer making her use more burnheal on ya, because if you sulk here fo' much longa, yer skin's gonna get mighty crispy, regardless of yer stinkin' magic dragon's blood." He crawled back to the mouth of the cave, where Morton, Larry and Crystal backed up to give him room. "If you don't want people ta fuss over you, den _you_ gotta take care of _yerself_," with that, Roy started off back up the tunnel.

Crystal followed him, anxious to get away from the magma; Larry followed her. Morton lingered, looking back in the chamber. He opened his mouth, but he couldn't think of anything better than Roy's parting words, and rather than take away from his brother's thunder, he turned and scurried away. He hadn't gotten far, however, when something compelling _did_ pop into his head. It wasn't quite as snappy as Roy's speech, but it was a good argument against the evils of staring into glowing hot rock (surely Lemmy didn't want to damage his retinas and have to wear protective glasses like Roy for the rest of his life). Grinning, Morton turned back, only to find Lemmy standing in the mouth of the chamber, frowning as his eyes got adjusted to the darkness of the tunnel. Evidently, he hadn't damaged his retinas, since he started walking after a moment, picking his way over to and past Morton.

The younger Koopaling sighed: he really wanted to tell Lemmy about retina damage. Then he realized that even though his brother had avoided such a fate, it didn't mean he couldn't hear about it anyway: the formerly lazy eyed Koopaling always had a slight interest in ocular science, after all. Morton's smile returned to his face as he scampered after his brother. "Hey! Lemmy! Did I ever tell you about the article I read in the last _Koopa Monthly_ about Magikooopa's Blindness and photophobia in Rocky Wrenches?"

-x-

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" asked Crystal, walking a half-step behind Roy as he strode through the tunnels.

"He's already out o' da room – just listen ta Morton yammerin' away: dem echoes are comin' from da tunnels."

Crystal automatically looked back over her shoulder; she couldn't see Morton and Lemmy (only Larry, following a few steps behind Crystal), but she had to admit: the echoes seemed too loud to be in the enclosed chamber.

"Should we wait for them?" asked Larry as Crystal turned back to Roy.

"I don't wanna listen ta Morton's dribble and I've seen enough o' Lemmy fer today – I'm sure he don't wanna see me no more neitha."

"You _were_ a little harsh," said Crystal quietly.

"Hey, it worked didn't it?" huffed Roy.

Crystal's stomach did a backflip – why did her conversations with Roy always turn sour? She had Larry track his brother down for her so she could compliment him on his bravery and hard work, and here she was picking apart his latest good deed instead. "Oh, I didn't mean to sound critical… I mean, it _was_ a criticism, but I didn't mean it that way… I mean… I just thought that you were a little too harsh on the human pilot. It's not his fault he was ordered to shoot us down…"

"Like I told Lemmy, he knew what he signed up for."

"And I suppose all the Koopas who were killed during the Mushroom Kingdom wars knew what they were signing up for too," said Crystal, before realizing how much a slap in the face criticizing Roy's military was.

"Dey _did_ know," growled Roy.

"I- I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that… It was really rude, I'm sorry," Crystal blushed, falling behind as Roy kept walking at his brisk pace.

"Don't apologize fo' speakin' yer mind. Sycophants are useless, and besides, ya got a point," said Roy, though he didn't bother looking back at the girl.

"R-really?" Crystal looked up at Roy's broad pink shell and his green, spiked helmet, barely believing her inner ears.

"Sure. Ya wouldn't know about it livin' up in da middle o' nowhere, but after Pops started invading da Mushroom Kingdom so much and getting da Koopa Troop's ass handed back ta us ova and ova by dem Marios, da amount o' new recruits for da army nose-dived. We could barely replace _half_ of da Koopas we lost to da humans by da time Ma and Pops gave up a few years back: it was nuts."

"I'll say," said Crystal, hurrying to fall in-step with Roy once more. She bit her lip nervously: he may not like sycophants, but she wondered if she should keep pushing her luck with him. _Ah, screw it_, she decided and took a shuddering breath. "You know… The stuff you said about the humans – about how they're invading for no reason – well, doncha think people say the same thing about you- er, about us- I mean, about the Koopas always invading the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"We're just takin' back what's rightfully ours," said Roy. "From way back when da humans first came here from Earth – with Koopa and the rest o' dat legendary fluff."

"Oh… Right," Crystal blushed again: she should have known that – her mother read her _The Story of Koopa_ every day when she was a child, didn't she?

"And we don't kill people when we invade," added Roy.

"That's good," a small smile crept across Crystal's face. Then, something occurred to her and she looked up at Roy, with a concerned frown. "Hey… You destroyed one of the airplanes too. And if the Koopas don't kill when they invade then… Wasn't that the first time _you_…?"

"Killed someone?" Roy smiled bitterly. "Technically all us Koopalings conspired ta kill ol' King Morton from beyond da Magic Mirror. But as for personally ending some schmo's life with my own hands… Yeah, it was."

"But- but you're so calm," Crystal thought back to Lemmy's breakdown. "Doesn't it bother you?"

"I'm a soldia," said Roy, puffing out his chest. "I came ta terms wid da fact dat one day, I'd have ta kill someone a long time ago."

"But if the Koopa Troop doesn't kill people during the invasions-"

"Well, we don't kill people _intentionally_ – accidents happen, dere's misunderstandin's… Weapons get deadlia too: Bullet Bills stun and Bob-ombs burn, but dose lasers we were usin' on da _Seven_ could cut a person in half. Dey're still new, and so dere haven't been any accidents o' misunderstandin's yet, but dere will be – unless da humans kill us all before we can use 'em anymore, dat is." Roy half-laughed at the comment, his face hard.

"Not that I'm complaining, but… if your parents were willing to lead countless numbers of their troops into futile battles to the death with the Mario Bros… how come they didn't just break out the lasers? Wouldn't they think it'd be better if all the people dying were their enemy?" Crystal could hardly believe what she was saying – how she was _thinking_.

"Easy," spat Roy. "Da Star Spirits wouldn't let dem – it's a conspiracy. Hundreds o' Koopas can die, but not Mushrooms – oh no. Cause dey're da good guys, even if dey're slaughtering us like pigs."

"Well, I guess if it's the Koopas who are invading, they sorta _are_ the bad guys…" said Crystal.

Roy stopped cold and turned to face Crystal full on. She paled and looked up at him: she had done it now. "You sayin' I'm a bad guy?"

"N-n-no! Of course not!"

Roy grinned darkly. "But I am. And so's Larry," he jutted his head at Larry, who was hovering a few feet behind them, watching. "And so's Lemmy, and Morton, and Pops and Ma, and all da rest of us. All dose years of invadin' – dere was no good reason for it. What I told ya before: dat was Ma speakin': she wants ta get da world back from da humans – fair enough, but still, Lemmy had a point back dere: killin' for revenge ain't a good reason."

"But you said you don't kill when you invade-"

"We don't kill innocent people, no. But if Ma and Pa had half a chance, dey'd kill Mario, Luigi and everyone who ever stood in deir way. Except maybe Peach, if Pops got to her before Ma, at any rate. As for him, he just wants ta win: meeting ol' Grandpa Morton's from da Mirror world cooled his jets a bit, but even now, if he was given an opportunity ta beat out his old man for Best Koopa King, he'd take it, nomatter da cost to his enemies. And killin' for personal satisfaction – ain't dat what _psychopaths_ do?"

Crystal shook her head, tears in her eyes. Roy wasn't a monster. His father wasn't a monster. Bowselta, her mother's best childhood friend, wasn't a monster. She couldn't be allied with monsters. She couldn't be in love with a monster. "But- but what you said to Lemmy… You said the _humans_ were the bad guys."

"Dey are – _dis time_," Roy frowned at Crystal as she blinked back tears, staring at the ground. "And dat's all dat matters right now. Dat's why I had ta get Lemmy back to his senses, because he has no choice but ta fight wid da rest of us. We're da rulers of dis land, and we have ta protect our people-"

Crystal gasped as Roy's fingers touched her skin, tilting her chin upwards so that she looked at him while he continued.

"We have ta protect _you_," he dropped his hand back to his side, lest Crystal got the wrong impression from his gesture. "War ain't pretty: I can see why you hate it so freakin' much, but if it's for a good cause, it's necessary. Ma and Pops' reasons for invadin' da Mushroom Kingdom may not be da best one out dere, but fighting against da human invasion _is_."

He turned to keep walking, but Crystal's legs had turned to jello and she couldn't follow. Instead, she squeaked out her last question: one she needed answered while the scales on her chin still tingled. "Why do _you_ fight? If you don't believe in your parents' invasion, why do you fight for it?"

Roy also paused, his back towards both Crystal and Larry, whose legs weren't working for an entirely different reason. "Well… If I'm out fightin', dat means less Koopas are dyin' in my place. Besides, I'd like ta see us Koopas rule da world someday – it'd be better den da Kremlings or da humans, dat's for sure. If I can make dat day come sooner, less people will die in da meantime."

"Killing… to stop the killing?" she whispered, barely understanding.

"Sometin' like dat," shrugged Roy, beginning to walk away again. "If dat ain't a good reason ta fight, I dunno what is. Anyway, I've got some more tunnels ta check out, so if anyone asks where I am, tell 'em not to worry: I'll be back fer dinner."

With that, Roy turned a corner and disappeared down another tunnel. Morton's echoing voice was all that could be heard. Larry jerkily walked forwards towards Crystal, who was gingerly touching her chin with her left hand. He wanted to tell her not to read too much into it – that Roy was just making sure she'd be a good little soldier like Lemmy when the time came, but the look on her face…

"He's really something, isn't he?" she said softly, almost to herself.

Larry knew Roy wasn't interested in Crystal the way she was interested in him, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her. She probably wouldn't even believe him – she'd just hate him for trying to break up what she thought she had with Roy. Larry couldn't break her heart, and he couldn't let her break his. Lemmy wasn't the coward – he was. "If we stay here much longer, we'll be stuck listening to Morton all afternoon," he murmured.

Crystal looked at him, blushing as if she had forgotten he had been there. "Good point… Come on, let's go."

-xxx-

Bowselta sat on the ground, her back against the wall of one of the upper tunnels, near a particularly large patch of luminescent crystals. Dragon-Koopas had good night vision, and given enough time, they would be able to navigate through almost pitch-black conditions, but the light was still nice. The main tunnel also had a lot of crystals, which made treating Ludwig much easier; most of the side-passages were dark, however, and besides Bowselta's pool of light, the tunnel was black.

She knew staying in the shadows would be a better hiding place, but it would make her feel childish to curl up in the dark somewhere. Sitting in the light, she could tell herself she was simply seeking some solitude to reflect upon the situation, and not just running away from Bowser and the Koopalings.

Bowselta sighed as she made a mental inventory of everything she was carrying in her hammerspace; it wasn't much. But she _could_ be mistaken: she hadn't purged her hammerspace in a while, so perhaps there were still some hidden items buried away within her energy fields that they could use – relics from her old days as the Shadow Thief. The only way to get at them would be to take everything else out of her shell first, and so she started with the largest item.

"Ahhhh, the sword of Churcha Katrooka."

Bowselta jumped, her grip instinctively tightening on her freshly drawn sword, even though she knew the person who had managed to sneak up on her was a friend.

Emerald grinned as she stepped into the light. "Née Churcha Cloopa – if I'm not mistaken – bastard daughter of Prince Hector Katrooka and Princess Lena Cloopa." Emerald plopped down on Bowselta's left as she continued her narrative. "So labeled because Hector did not recognize the Clubba clan's Princess as his legitimate mate, spurning her for Marina Koopa, who became his Queen and died shortly after producing the heir to the Koopa Troopa throne, Xavier Katrooka. Stop me if I'm getting any of this wrong, by the way." Bowselta grinned and shook her head, thus telling Emerald to keep speaking. "After Lena Cloopa died, Churcha crossed Dark Land and seduced her half-brother, before killing him in his sleep and beheading their father with _that_ sword. He sucked as a leader though, and since she was pregnant with Xavier's child, and was therefore the late heir's mate, the Koopa Troopas willingly gave her the throne." Emerald nodded to herself. "Bowser's side of the family is really screwed up, ain't it?"

"Only Clawdia's line," chuckled Bowselta, absentmindedly examining her grandmother-in-law's sword. "I didn't think you were such a history nerd."

"My parents were. Brank too – it sorta rubbed off on me."

"My mother was a genealogy nut – she could trace her line all the way back to the _times of Koopa_," Bowselta snorted. "All five generations that came before her – yeah, real hard to remember! Especially considering how every generation had only one kid – to keep the line pure or in demand or something stupid like that."

"Is that why you had so many kids?"

"Partly," said Bowselta. "Growing up alone… it's not fun."

"No it's not. I guess that's why, after all these years, we still remember hanging out together."

"You remember more than me," said Bowselta. "All I remember is bits and pieces of that last week – I don't even remember the visits we paid you first-hand."

Emerald shook her head. "I don't remember much of those either… That last week, though… I _do_ remember some of it… Say, whatever happened to that weird kid who liked you – you know, the guy with the hair?"

"Mark? I told you, he didn't like me!"

"He SO did!"

"He didn't!"

"Did!"

"Didn't!"

"So what _is_ he up to now?"

"He's a blacksmith… In Burt's Cove, last time I heard."

"Oh, keeping tabs on him, are you? What does _Bowser_ have to say about that?"

"Actually, it was the kids who tracked them down."

"You told them about Mark? Wow, Bow, and I thought _he_ was the one who liked _you_…"

"What? No- it's not like that! Remember when we told you guys about the kids going through the Magic Mirror?"

"Relax," Emerald waved nonchalantly. "Man… it seems like it's been forever since you showed up in my living room."

"Yeah, time flies when you're having fun," said Bowselta darkly.

"Aw man, do ya _have_ to spoil the mood like that?" whined Emerald. "What are you doing with Churcha's sword anyway?"

"I was going to do an inventory check of what I've got in my hammerspace," explained Bowselta.

"Oooh, good idea. I've got tonnes of crap in mine. I bet Crystal's got lots of good stuff too – and Koopa knows what _your_ kids are packin'! We should do it all together at dinner."

Bowselta nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea. I guess I'll save my inventory for dinner too." Bowselta flipped the sword around so that its tip stuck under the lip of her shell over her shoulder, but paused instead of pushing it into her hammerspace. "You know… I've had this sword for over twenty years, and yet people still call it 'Churcha's sword' – it's _my_ sword."

"You know… You're absolutely right! It _is_ yours: you stole it from that museum fair and square," said Emerald, once again defaulting to her goofy personality as Bowselta brought her sword back down in front of her. "It was meant to be, like that human who pulled a sword from a stone in that legend – er, what was it called again?"

"'_King Arthur_'?" Now it was Bowselta's turn to smirk. "So much for the history buff."

"_Koopan_ history – not ancient human folklore," said Emerald in mock-defense. "The point is: it was a fated pairing."

"We even match," said Bowselta bitterly, looking down at her sword before realizing she had spoken the words aloud.

Emerald immediately sobered up. "Match?"

Bowselta looked at her friend, before sighing and pushing herself into a kneeling position. She spun around on the spot and held the sword parallel to her right thigh, so that the black marks on the blade and the black scar on her leg were side-by-side.

Emerald's face was unreadable. "The Mark of the Dead."

"Yep," said Bowselta, spinning around and flopping back down beside her friend, finally sucking the sword back into her hammerspace. She hadn't planned on telling Emerald anything, but she couldn't keep it a secret any longer. "It happened when I was stranded on Earth – I was shot in the leg by some random human," contempt dripped from Bowselta's voice as she spoke, but it was soon replaced by despair. "I pulled the bullet out, but I've had this black scar ever since… And it's been getting bigger. At first it was really slow, but it was gradually spreading faster, and now – since the humans started invading – it's grown nearly an inch in diameter!" Bowselta looked at Emerald, as if her medical knowledge could somehow help her. "By tomorrow, for all I know it'll be another inch wider. And by the end of the week… I thought I'd at least have time to get all you guys somewhere safe – that I could help recruit the first few towns and teach you all to get around on your own, so you won't have to learn the hard way like I did… But now…"

"Are you cold?" asked Emerald.

"Wha-?"

"The old stories from the human invasion – the first one, that is – they say that Koopas who were shot but survived the initial wound were eventually consumed by the Mark of the Dead, but that it took a while. As well as the blackness, a coldness was said to be one of the symptoms."

"When it happened everything was cold, but once I got the bullet out, it went away," Bowselta shuddered at the memory.

"What about the Mark? Does it have feeling? Is _it_ cold?"

"It has feeling," said Bowselta, rubbing her right hand over her leg. "It's not cold, but… it hurts sometimes."

"When people touch it?"

"No, just… randomly."

"Hmmm," Emerald thought for a moment, but then smiled brightly at Bowselta. "Well, by the sounds of it, you're nowhere near terminal. Even after you've gone completely black and cold, if I remember correctly, you'll still have a few weeks left! They'll be time to impart your survival skill knowledge to us – it'll be a crash course, is all – one taught by a living zombie!"

Bowselta blinked. "Only you could make something so horrible sound fun… Well, maybe Lemmy could too."

"That's why I like him," winked Emerald. "But don't worry – I'm not out to steal your kingdom or behead anyone or get pregnant – I'm just looking for fun… Hot, sweaty fun, of a kind you can't get from any old species – and believe me, I've tried – and if I've got a choice on who to help me out on this endeavour, well, he _is_ the foxiest of all your kids, so…"

Emerald trailed off with a lascivious grin, but it took Bowselta a moment to completely grasp what she was talking about; admitting her darkest secret had made her forget all about their opening conversation. "Nice to know that history won't _always_ repeat itself," deadpanned Bowselta, falling silent as she thought back to the second human invasion.

Emerald was quiet for a while as well, but then: "How's Bowser handling it?"

"He… he doesn't know yet."

"How can he _not_ know?" Emerald asked incredulously as Bowselta avoided eye contact.

"I haven't had the heart to tell him… He already thought I was dead all those years… I couldn't do that to him… again..."

"This isn't the sorta thing you can just keep to yourself, Bowselta."

"Yeah? What do you know about this kinda stuff anyway?" Bowselta snarled, getting to her feet and glaring down at Emerald. "You said so yourself: you're just in it for the sex! That's all you and Brank shared – you weren't in love, so how can _you_ know what I'm going through?"

"I love Crystal," said Emerald quietly, unaffected by Bowselta's sudden rage. "If I were dying, I'd tell her. I know it would hurt her, but it'd be better than making her find out on her own. You're worried about the people you love and how your death will affect them, but since you can't stop it, all you can do is prepare them for it the best way you can: by being honest with them."

"Easier said than done," snapped Bowselta, pacing around the pool of light.

"They probably already know something's up," shrugged Emerald. "Some of your kids are pretty observant, and I wouldn't put it past Morton to know the more in-depth legends we have up in the north dealing with the Mark of the Dead… Pretty soon, they're going to put two and two together and you better be ready to tell them by that point." With a grunt, Emerald got to her feet, so that she was eye-level with Bowselta again. "But before they get to that point, you have to tell Bowser. I may have only been in all my relationships 'for the sex', but even I know that you owe it to Bowser to tell him the truth – because _he_ loves _you_."

Bowselta hated being preached too. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "You get that from your northerner legends too? Or maybe your history-nerd parents? Or your studly little fu-"

"Actually, I got it from the radio shows out of Frozen Cove – they're the sudsiest soap operas around!" Emerald chuckled. Bowselta's face softened slightly, but she paled when a new set of footsteps began to approach the pair.

Sure enough, they belonged to Bowser. "So, _this_ is where you've been hiding."

"Not _hiding_," corrected Bowselta as her mate stumped into the crystal light. "Just… thinking."

"Sounded more like chatting," frowned Bowser.

"How much did you hear?" Bowselta's heard skipped a beat.

"Errrr, something about soap? I couldn't make heads or tails of all the echoes – sorry."

"Don't apologize for failing to eavesdrop," huffed Bowselta.

"Sorry," repeated Bowser.

"I'm gonna go help Roy and Morton find Lemmy," interjected Emerald. "He probably needs more ointment on his neck by now. You guys have fun catching up."

"And _you_ don't have _too_ much fun catching Lemmy up, ya hear?" Bowser turned to Bowselta with a grin as Emerald's laughs echoed through the tunnel behind him.

"You realize that comeback made no sense whatsoever," said Bowselta, cocking an eyebrow at the Koopa King.

"Yeah, well, I don't think too good on an empty stomach."

"Get used to it," said Bowselta. "Once we're out of the volcanoes, food is still going to be pretty scarce."

"Ground Guts here we come," said Bowser, pumping his fist in mock-anticipation.

"What?"

"'Ground Guts'…" Bowser frowned. "That _is_ your name for worms, isn't it?"

"It is – I'm just surprised you remembered…" Bowselta knew Bowser wasn't as thick as he acted most of the time, but perhaps even she had underestimated him. If he could remember an obscure euphemism she hadn't invoked in Bowser's presence since she was pregnant with Larry, could he have noticed the growing black mark on her leg? She thought back to when she first returned – he had asked her about it then, but she had always dodged his questions and eventually he stopped trying. She assumed he forgot about it, but…

"What's wrong?" Bowser peered into Bowselta's face.

"It's Ludwig's birthday today…" deflected Bowselta. "He's supposed to get gifts from us, not lose his leg to the humans."

"He'll be okay: he just needs a little Rejuvenating Potion, or whatever it's called-"

"Revitalizing Potion."

"That's the one!" Bowser smiled plaintively, but Bowselta didn't perk up. "Look, no one can deny that it's been a bad twenty-four hours, but there's something else that's bothering you."

"How can you tell?" muttered Bowselta, avoiding Bowser's eyes.

"I just can," he said, scooping Bowselta up into a gentle hug.

The Queen of the Koopas closed her eyes and sank into Bowser's embrace, her snout buried into the side of his neck, which reeked of blood and brimstone. It was a familiar smell. Bowselta wished they could remain like that for the rest of the morning, but she knew that Emerald was right. She felt bad for snapping at her friend, but she felt worse about what she was about to do to.

"Bowser… There's something I need to tell you… Something bad." Bowselta's voice broke. As she struggled to choke out her next words, Bowser gave her a comforting squeeze: he knew what was coming. "It's about m-my leg…"


	12. Chasing Dreams

Chapter 11: Chasing Dreams

After three days of stumbling around the bowels of volcanoes, the Dragon-Koopas were no closer to any of their goals. They started off heading southwest, towards Bowselta's old stomping grounds, but the lava dried up sooner than they had been expecting. They had been travelling along open flows whenever possible, as it would mask their body heat from the infrared sensors carried on the human planes that would occasionally rumble overhead. Because of the planes, the Dragon-Koopas stuck to the tunnels most of the time, and only made camp deep within mountains, but if they hoped to do more than travel in meandering circles, they had to go above ground as well. However, there was no way they would travel without lava flows _or_ miles of rock hiding them from the humans, and Bowselta was forced to change their plans.

The east would make the Koopas just as vulnerable as in the west, with the added onus of nearly impassable steep cliffs carved into the extinct volcanoes by rivers laced with purple, acidic poison heading out to the ocean. The ocean which brought the humans to Dark Land. Bowselta was sure the coastal towns were crawling with humans just as much as the castles to the south, and so their only choice was to backtrack north. If they could find even a single free Magikoopa village, they could turn their situation around: Ludwig would get his leg grown back, they'd obtain magic to hide them from the humans without the need for lava, not to mention adding some able fighters to their company.

The chances were slim, but it was the best they had.

"Why didn't we just go north in the first place?" growled Junior, not taking kindly to his mother's decision to turn around. Having narrowly dodged a patrol plane on their way back from a lava-less western valley, the Dragon-Koopas were taking a moment to rest in a narrow tunnel leading up to the safety of a magma pool. While they couldn't see the magma at the end of the tunnel, the faint glow from the molten rocks still filtered down to where everyone but Junior sat. The youngest Koopaling was too agitated to sit, and paced back and forth while his family, Emerald and Crystal looked on.

"The old Koopa Troopa foothills were more likely to be unguarded than the Magikoopas," said Bowselta impassively. "They _were_ our best bet – until now."

Junior's eyes narrowed. "Until you remembered that the lava flows won't take us right back to your old neighbourhood? If you're such an expert about the Koopa Troopa area, why didn't you know that all along?"

Bowselta bristled at her son's accusations. "I knew the lava wouldn't get us the _entire_ way, but I thought we'd at least get to cover before it dried up. When I was younger, this wasn't anywhere close to the edge of the active flows."

""Even _if_ the lava went further, it still would have run out eventually. Then what were you planning to do, hide in the trees? Like that would work against the humans' infrared sensors!"

"That's enough, Junior," growled Bowser, who was sitting beside Ludwig. He and Roy had been helping Ludwig walk, despite the eldest Koopaling's insistence that he had regained enough strength to move on to _inorganic_ crutches.

Junior glared at Bowser, but before he could retort, Bowselta spoke up. "He has a point: the trees wouldn't shield us from the planes, but I _did_ take that into consideration. The humans probably don't have enough resources to dispatch their planes all over the country looking for us, especially if they're also using them to fight Sarasaland. I highly doubt they'll be patrolling the western countryside, but we're still far within the Dark Land interior – as we heard just a few minutes ago, the planes _are_ present here."

Junior wrinkled his snout disapprovingly. "Did it ever occur to you that the planes flying around are heading _to_ Sarasaland from our captured military bases? Guess what's between here and Sarasaland – your precious forests!"

"If they were heading somewhere, they'd be flying much higher than the tops of the mountains, not scooting along the valleys – and they wouldn't buzz the forests either," said Bowselta coolly. "Now, is there any particular _reason_ that you're gunning for a fight here?"

Bowser Jr. squirmed under the reproachful gaze of his parents, the Koopalings and even Crystal and Emerald. "I- I'm just pissed that after all that walking, we're going to turn around and walk all the way back to where we started from."

"Hey, you're not the only one who's not too happy about all the recent physical exertion," said Morton. "My legs are _killing_ me! And so's my stomach, for that matter, but if north is the best chance of survival we've got, we should go north! Mom knows what she's talking about, doncha Mom?" He grinned at his mother, but didn't wait for a response. "Besides, we're not going directly back to where we came from, we're going north, not north_east_. Going back to the crash-site _would_ be a mistake, since the humans are probably still looking around there for their own crashed airplanes. Fortunately, everything from the _Seven_ sunk into the lava, so they won't be able to tell we crashed too. Unless they check the tunnel – there _is_ probably bits of debris in there… Actually, there's probably two entire severed wings in there…" Morton frowned worriedly, but before he could start speaking again, Bowselta saw fit to reassure him.

"I doubt the humans will check the tunnels."

"Why wouldn't they?" said Junior skeptically. "If they're 'scooting along the valleys', they've figured out that we're not in the air anymore, and where else could we hide out great honkin' plane than in the tunnels?"

"Or under the lava," grinned Morton.

"Well, it's not like we could've hung around and picked the tunnel clean after the crash," huffed Iggy. "Everyone was either in shock, unconscious or tending to other people's medical disasters." Iggy lowered his face shamefully. "Or, y'know, nursing lesser hurts… like mine."

"Yeah, we know," said Junior cruelly.

Iggy's head snapped up. "I noticed that _you_ didn't do anything productive, even though you got out of the crash scot-free. Why didn't _you_ go around cleaning up after the crash?"

"Hey, it was Morton who brought up the debris, ask _him_ why _he_ didn't do it," said Junior defensively, turning his back on Iggy as he paced about the tunnel.

"It was better that we stuck together," explained Morton. "Besides, the tunnel we crashed in was up high and on the other side of the lava pool, which was pretty much impassable at that point, so I couldn't've gotten up there anyway... Well, actually it was only about a _quarter_ of the way around the pool, but it was still unreachable since I don't trust my wall-climbing magic all that much anymore, and-"

"And it doesn't matter either way: the important thing is that _we_ all got away from there in one piece," said Bowselta.

Wendy hugged herself tighter. "It sucks that that's all we _can_ do: _run away_. Run away from the crash, run away from the airplanes, run away from the coast, run away from the south and the north and now the west… What good are we if all we can do is run away? What if the Magikoopas are _all_ being watched by humans? Are we gonna run away from them too? Then what?"

"Then we try the east-"

"But I thought you said the coast is _almost certainly compromised_?" said Junior scathingly.

Bowselta sighed. "It will still be worth a look if there's no-"

"So we'll look and then we'll run away," Wendy threw up her hands. "Yeah, real great plan!"

"Can you think of something better?" spat Bowselta.

Wendy scowled: she couldn't.

"We've already come this far, I say we make a break for the countryside. After all, _Mom_ things to think the forests will be safe," Junior laughed bitterly: obviously he didn't share Bowselta's confidence, and his next words revealed his true motivation for heading west. "_Anything_ will be better than being fenced in here forever – maybe we could even get all the way over to Sarasaland: then we'll have an _actual_ army helping us."

"We don't need Sarasaland," said Bowser darkly; the thought of going to the Koopa Kingdom's sworn enemy for help made him sick. Maybe if they were asking Peach, it wouldn't be so bad, but Sarasaland was another matter entirely. It had been the thorn in Bowser's side growing up, and now its ruler was married to a _Mario Brother_ – Bowser would never sink so low as to ask someone as spineless as Luigi for help.

"Fine then, we'll stick to the Koopa Kingdom – but Wendy's right: we need to do something other than run away. The forest isn't too far away, and if we hurry, we can make it."

"But we _can't_ hurry," said Lemmy.

"Yeah, well we all know who's fault _that_ is," said Junior icily. An uneasy silence fell, as the Koopalings avoided making eye contact with Iggy, who was fidgeting guiltily, or with Ludwig, who felt no shame over Junior's accusation.

"It vas zee humans' fault," said Ludwig once again. "If you're going to get mad at somevone, get mad at zem, not your own family."

Junior's laugh was hollow. "Are _you_ mad at them, Luddy? I know how much _fun_ it is to be deformed," he licked his tongue across his nearly toothless gums, hidden behind his black scarf. "Aren't you mad that they took away your future on the _eve_ of your adulthood?"

"My future did not rest viszin zat leg," said Ludwig.

"You really think you're going to survive this?" said Junior under his breath.

"Hey! Don't be so morbid, man!" said Morton, who was the only one who properly heard what the young Koopaling had hissed.

"What'd he say?" demanded Bowser.

"I wish we _had_ salvaged some stuff from the _Seven_," said Junior, his back to his father. "Those lasers would come in real handy-" he whirled around and pointed his arm at Ludwig's head, his fingers in the shape of a gun. "BANG! Right between the eyes."

"What the _hell_ Junior?" Bowselta jumped forward and smacked Junior's hand down. "Don't you DARE joke about- about _killing_ your own brother."

"He's gonna die anyway!" protested Junior. "We're _all_ gonna die! Without him slowing us down we could at least travel fast enough to-"

"That's enough!" Bowser jumped to his feet and joined Bowselta, staring down at his youngest son in horrified rage. "If I ever hear you talking about Ludwig, or any of your siblings like that again, I'll-"

"You'll what, send me to my room?" Bowser Jr. cackled. "That's a laugh!"

"Apologize to Ludwig," hissed Bowselta.

"No, no, it's okay, really," said Ludwig pleadingly, not wanting the scene to escalate any more. "I'm not-"

"Apologize!" repeated Bowselta, ignoring Ludwig.

Junior glared at her, but then he shrugged. "Y'know what? Fine, I apologize. It's not Luddy's fault we're all gonna die… It's _yours_."

"_What?_" Bowselta stared wide-eyed at Junior, who sneered behind his scarf.

"Okay, _now_ you've gotta apologize to your mother too," ordered Bowser.

"No!" huffed Junior, turning his back on his parents. He knew he was only digging his grave deeper, but he was beyond caring; he hated them all _so_ much.

Bowselta's face flushed; Junior had been a problem for a while now, but she didn't expect him to make such a scene – and in front of Emerald and Crystal, no less. "Stop this right now, Junior. We did not raise you to behave-"

"_Raise_ me? _You_ didn't raise me!" Junior turned back to Bowselta. "You left when I was an egg! You abandoned me and Papa!"

"That was beyond my control!" said Bowselta, her face livid. "I came back as soon as I could-"

"Not before you sold us all out to the humans – that's why they're here, isn't it? Because _you_ went to their world first and told them all about us."

"I did no such thing!"

"Then why are they here!" screeched Junior. "You heard Kammy's messages: she said that Kamek said they came through to invade us before we could invade them, which they though we were going to do after-"

"After _I_ blew our cover," said Bowser. "Your mother remained hidden and undetected throughout her entire stay – it was _me_ who was clumsy and got us spotted." Bowser chose to ignore the fact that he wouldn't have been on Earth if Bowselta weren't there first: he didn't want to give Junior more fuel for the fire. "And that's only _if_ Kamek was telling the truth about the humans. For all we know, it was the Mario Bros. who blabbed-"

"Which they couldn't've done if _Mom_ didn't send them through the portal," said Junior accusatively.

"Shut up!" bellowed Bowser.

"NO!" screamed Junior. "I won't shut up because I'm right! I know I'm right! It's her fault!" he turned to his mother, tears in his eyes. "IT'S ALL _YOUR_ FAULT!"

"_Don't you think I already know that?_" whispered Bowselta, her face turned away from the light as her own eyes became edges with tears. She then glared down at Junior, anger mixed with the despair. "Don't you think I know this is because of me!" she wailed, advancing on Junior who staggered backwards and fell to the ground, staring mutely up at the Queen of the Koopas.

"Bowselta, it's not-"

"IT IS!" she cried, looking over her shoulder at Bowser, before closing her eyes and hunching over, tears splattering onto the ground in front of Junior. "But it was an _accident_," she moaned, reaching up and gripping onto her blue Paratroopa shell charm. "It was a mistake I've regretted every day of my life! I always hoped it was just me who would pay for it, but now- but now- …I've killed you all too." She squeezed the charm; part of her wished she could crush it in her hands for sending her through the portal. Part of her had always wanted to throw the charm into the lava, and forget she had ever been to Earth, or at the very least, _pretend_ it never happened. The Koopas pretended many of Bowser's mistakes never occurred – one more lie couldn't have hurt.

Bowser stepped forward to comfort Bowselta, but his wife shook him off, angrily wiping her tears away as she let the traitorous charm fall back against her chest. Junior hadn't expected his mother to react that way – he wanted to hurt her, but he didn't think he'd succeed so effectively. He couldn't remember the last time he saw her cry – he wasn't sure if he had _ever_ seen her cry before. He scurried away before she could regain her composure and flame him for his accomplishment, or before Bowser or the Koopalings could do it for her. Only Wendy seemed unmoved by her mother's breakdown. Junior could see it in her eyes: she was also angry at Bowselta for what she had done, and so he sat beside her in the shadows, glad he wasn't the only one who resented dying for the Koopa Queen's mistakes.

"Well, I mean, it's not all bad, right?" stammered Bowser. "This isn't the first time the humans invaded, after all: the Koopas defeated them last time."

"Actually, it was a stalemate," corrected Morton.

"Whatever!"

"And da sides weren't quite as uneven back den," added Roy. "It was muskets vs. magic, not magic vs. _supasonic jets_."

"Yeah, but we have weapons too: Bullet Bills and-"

"Dat still don't work against supasonic jets," said Roy, shaking his head.

"Except in extreme circumstances, like when Lemmy shot down the jet," reminded Morton, before wincing as the memory brought a shadow to his older brother's face.

"See? There's still hope," said Bowser plaintively.

"Hope," Lemmy snorted. "What good does that do anyone?"

"Since when were _you_ a downer too?" Bowser frowned. "Anyway, 'hope' is what foiled some of my best plots. Peach always called on it and wishes and love and all that stupid stuff when I kidnapped her, and you see how well the Mario Bros. always did when they came to take her away." Bowser's voice was bitter, but he managed to squeeze out a smile. "I got away with far less than these invaders, so with any luck, they'll get what's coming to them too."

"If that is the case, why didn't the Star Spirits step in to save Princess Peach this time?" said Bowselta, glaring blindly at a spot on the wall. "Why'd they let their precious hero Mario fall?"

"Well, the invading humans weren't trying to _kill_ him," said Bowser. "That's how _we_ got around them when we- er-"

"When we sent them to the human world," sighed Bowselta. "I wouldn't put it past those Stars if this whole thing was an elaborate comeuppance: maybe that's why we succeeded in sending the Mario Bros. away – because they knew we'd pay for it later."

"Great, so the invasion's the _Star Spirits'_ fault!" Bowser grinned. "So we can all stop blaming ourselves for it!"

"But if they _want_ the invasion, there _is_ no hope for us," said Iggy. "We'll be defeated just like every other time we went up against the Star Spirits."

"Don't you give up too!" Bowser scowled. "Doesn't _anyone_ think we can do this?"

"I do!" said Morton, jutting his pudgy hand into the air.

"Sarasaland's holding their own," shrugged Roy. "We were taken by surprise, but who knows? Maybe we can still turn dis war around."

"Zere is nossing to be gained by simply giving up," nodded Ludwig.

"The Stars didn't help during the first invasion, so we don't need them this time around," murmured Larry.

"Yeah, but last time, they had Queen Koopa and the Mystic Meteor," said Bowselta, chewing her lip in frustration. "And what do we have? Nothing!"

"Then why don't we change that?" said Emerald brightly. The Koopas all turned as a devilish glint appeared in their friend's eyes. "Queen Koopa may be gone, but who says we can't crack out the old Meteor?"

The Koopalings al began to speak at once. "_What?_" "The legends don't say anything about…" "You _can't_ be serious!" "Dat's just a stupid story." "You're crazy!" "…or where she broke it…" "That's worse than putting our faith in the Stars!" "You're crazy!" "…not to mention-"

"Hey! HEY! Just hear me out, won't ya?" Emerald waited for her audience to quiet down before continuing. "The Story of Koopa is only 200 years old – recent history, by most standards, and there's more than enough documentation of her and the Meteor to prove they existed. Granted, there's a lot of different versions of the Story, and some are a lot more ambiguous than others, but up north, we like to think we've got a pretty good idea of what _really_ went down. Ya see, Koopa spent a lot of time up there looking for the Meteor; lots of people in Westpole claim their great-great-great-whatever-grandparents met her: a crazy dragon lady out looking for a big old rock. Of course, once she found it and began channeling its awesome powers, they didn't think she was so crazy, heh heh."

"Get on with it," said Bowser impatiently.

Emerald rolled her eyes. "_Fine_: my point _was_ that the northern folk felt bad about doubting her, and so they made it like a personal quest to preserve every little thing about her. I'd tell you the _full_ story – including all the little details you southerners tend to leave out – but obviously you don't want to hear it, so I'll skip to the ending."

"Good," said Bowser.

"Can you tell _me_ the full story later?" interrupted Morton.

"Sure," Emerald smiled. "Anyway, about the Meteor… So, Koopa told the humans she'd give 'em the power they craved, but she-"

"Just tell us where to find da rock," moaned Roy.

"In the old Clubba territory," said Emerald matter-of-factly.

"Huh?" "That's random." "But Clubbas are so- so-" "Why there?" "How can you be sure?" "Dere were no territories back den – it can't be part o' da story." "They're so _useless_!" "I don't get it." "What the hell?"

"Now, if you had let me tell the full story from the beginning, you'd understand what I'm talking about," sighed Emerald as the Koopalings settled down again. Bowser and Bowselta managed to keep silent the entire time. "You see, she needed to get as far away from the humans and the other Koopas as possible, because it was tricky magic she was performing, and she'd be very vulnerable. One wrong move, and the whole world could have been stripped of its magic!"

"I doubt that," said Wendy.

"Shhh!" hushed Morton, before turning back to Emerald with rapt attention.

"The Clubba's territory was far enough north to be removed from the humans, and hostile enough so that people wouldn't go wandering about there for no reason. The only reason she didn't go all the way back up to where she originally found the meteor was because there simply wasn't enough time, so she settled with the main Clubba territory."

"But da territories weren't decided until afta she died," said Roy.

"I thought you don't believe in the legends?" smirked Iggy.

"Da war was real and da political stuff was real; it's stuff like _dis_ dat I don't believe: all dis Mystic mumbo-jumbo messin' wid da facts."

"Fine then," said Emerald exasperatedly. "It wasn't the 'Clubba territory' when Koopa went there – it was the 'area where Clubbas were found in most abundance within the boundaries of Dark Land'. Happy now?"

"No," said Roy.

"You're _never_ happy," dismissed Morton. "Don't listen to him, Emerald: go on with the story."

Emerald smirked good-naturedly at Morton's comment. "Okay, so Koopa went to the _area where Clubbas were found in most abundance within the borders of Dark Land_ and-"

"And gave the humans their power, sacrificing herself in the process, yeah, yeah, we know all that! But you expect us to believe the Mystic Meteor is just lying around somewhere in the Clubban mountains?" Bowser crossed his arms and frowned at Emerald.

"Yes, I do. It's said to be in a cave with Koopa's staff, probably all gussied up into a shrine."

"A _shrine_? Who built it, the _Clubbas_?" jeered Wendy.

"No, her-"

"Of course the Clubbas would tell legends like _that_," interrupted Bowser derisively. "Anything to try and boost their image, since they won't actually _do_ anything to deserve real kudos. All the Clubbas I've met have been lazy, cowardly-"

"Koopa, you're just like Hector Katrooka!" exclaimed Emerald.

"Who?"

"Your great-grandfather," said Bowselta.

"We were talking about him just the other day," said Emerald, jutting her chin at Bowselta while keeping her eyes on Bowser. "About how he didn't think too highly of the Clubba's royal family. But you know, Clubbas are our closest living relatives – Spiked Clubbas, even more so, though they beat us to extinction, it seems. Not counting the few normal Clubbas who can power-up, that is: you know Tabba and Hugga from the Westpole airport, right? Well, I dated their nephew Dubba a few years back – but really, his name should have been 'Hubba', because when he powered-up he was-"

"_MUM!_" squealed Crystal, her cheeks darkening with embarrassment at what her mother was miming.

Emerald grinned and lowered her hands. "My point is – other than them, we've gotta go to Kremlings for recreation. Of course, there's no beating other Dragon-Koopas in the sack, amirite, Lemmy?"

As Emerald winked and Crystal hid her burning red face into her arms, most of the Koopalings turned and stared at Lemmy, who was rapidly approaching Crystal in colour, He shook his head frantically. "D-don't listen to her! We didn't- she was just fixing my neck. And- and-"

"Can we get back to part where Emerald explains _why_ she believes there's a shrine in a cave in the Clubban mountains where we can find the Mystic Meteor?" growled Bowser. "And please don't tell me she went there to have a good time with the local boys before kicking the bucket, because I _seriously_ doubt even the attention-whore Clubbas would make up a story _that_ outrageous."

"Hey, don't go implying I'm making all this stuff up, because it's all true," said Emerald indignantly. "Just ask Crystal – she remembers Dubba."

"I _try_ not to," moaned the young Dragon-Koopa, her head still buried in her arms as she tried to banish some rather unpleasant and graphic mental images from her mind.

"Later that year, for my birthday, she got me some locks for my bedroom," said Emerald, cupping her hand in front of her mouth to pretend like she didn't want Crystal to hear. "She's not the subtle type."

"Can we get back to Queen Koopa, _please_?" said Bowselta dryly.

"Koopa simply recognized that the Clubbas were noble – and studly – creatures like herself, and so she was willing to leave the Mystic Meteor among them." Concluded Emerald, unable to resist one last throwaway in the otherwise serious matters at hand.

"Maybe she left it zere because she knew zee Clubbas would be too lazy to try looking for it," suggested Ludwig when Bowser opened his mouth to argue against Emerald's deduction.

"That works too," shrugged Emerald.

"I'll buy that," agreed Bowselta.

"You don't _seriously_ believe that the Meteor's in a shrine in a cave in the Clubban mountains, do you?" said Bowser incredulously.

"It has to be _somewhere_ – so why not?" shrugged Bowselta.

"But it could take _years_ to find it," said Iggy.

"Hmm, yeah: it took Koopa almost _ten_ years to find it the first time," said Morton.

"Eight years, to be precise," said Emerald. "But she was searching _all_ of Dark Land."

"And _we_ only have to worry about an _eighth_," said Wendy incredulously.

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to do something other than run away – searching for the Mystic Meteor _is_ something," argued Lemmy.

"Don't talk to me about _doing_ things, pervert," huffed Wendy.

"But I _didn't_-"

"Guys!" Bowselta's voice echoed around the tunnel, instantly quieting her children. "I know it's a long-shot, and I know I've said this before, but now I _really_ think that this is out best shot at getting through this alive." Bowselta's face was steely and her voice didn't betray a hint of despair as she spoke; it was as if the scene that had transpired barely ten minutes previously had never happened at all. "If we can get that Meteor, perhaps we can reverse what Koopa did all those years ago – without magic to protect them, humans are weak; we'll still have to deal with their weaponry, but with the Meteor, our own powers will be strengthened beyond our wildest dreams. If we find it, we can turn everything around."

"That's a big 'if'," said Junior. "We'll probably be caught long before we find the right cave – _if_ it even exists."

Again, Bowselta unconsciously gripped her charm. "It's a chance I'm willing to take."

"Me too," grinned Morton, jumping to his feet.

Roy groaned as he followed suit. "It may based on be magical mumbo-jumbo, but it's better den dee original guerilla warfare plans, so what da hell: let's give it a try."

Iggy shrugged to himself and stood up, with Larry close behind. Wendy waited for a moment, but eventually rolled her eyes and followed suit. "Okay, _fine_ – it'll beat wandering the tunnels aimlessly once we discover all the Magikoopa villages are out of our hands too – which they _totally_ are, if the humans have any sense, which they do, otherwise they wouldn't've caused so much trouble for us in the first place."

"Count us in – obviously: seeing as it was _my_ idea in the first place," gloated Emerald, getting to her feet and dragging Crystal up with her.

"Forgive me if I don't stand to show my support," Ludwig smiled.

"Bowser?" The Koopa Queen raised her eyebrows expectantly at her husband, who looked away.

"You know…" he said, after a moment. "Come to think of it, Kamek mentioned something about my father looking for the Mystic Meteor when they were younger."

"Did he find it?" asked Morton.

"Obviously _not_," snorted Wendy.

"Yeah, he didn't find it," said Bowser. "But the fact that he even thought it was worth looking for means he figured it could be found – King Morton Koopa didn't start anything he didn't think could be finished."

"Egotistic twat," remarked Emerald.

Bowser laughed. "That he was – though Kamek never used _quite_ that wording."

Emerald chuckled. "Wait, what was that old joke about Kamek Koopa again? My parents used to tell it whenever they heard about him over the radio… Umm… It was like… if Clawdia had died or grew some good taste and left Morton or something, and then he had trouble finding a new queen, Kamek would have been more than happy to fill the post!"

"Sheesh," said Bowser, scratching his head. "If you northerners preserve the legends like you preserve the bad jokes, maybe your Clubba-orgy version of _The Story of Koopa_ is realistic after all…"

-xxxxx-

A week later, the Dragon-Koopas were in the heart of the old Clubba territory. There were no human planes patrolling these mountains, which was fortunate since tunnels became very scarce before long as the lava gave way to poisonous rivers. They spent their first night in the area spread out over a couple promising mountains, but the caves were all empty, save for a few unlucky Buzzy-Beetles who the starved Dragon-Koopas fell upon without mercy. In the early morning, the mountains were bathed in full sunlight, as they were near the shores of Dark Land and the clouds did not wrap all the way down to the horizon. It did not last, however, and under the shadowy cloud-cover, the Dragon-Koopas continued their search for the Mystic Meteor, their internal ears cocked for the roar of approaching jet engines. They reconvened at noon at the far side of the easternmost mountain, and travelled in a group to the next patch of mountains, to begin the process again at nightfall. The rest of the afternoon was spent sleeping inside of the deepest cave they could find, which had come complete with dinner – in the form of two large Swoopers and their seven nestlings.

Standing watch near the mouth of the cave, Bowselta let her mind wander. She wondered how Sarasaland was faring against the humans. As long as Queen Daisy held the interior of the Mushroom Continent, there was hope; if Sarasaland fell, Jewelry Land would be conquered, and seeing as the Beanbean Kingdom was almost certainly in human hands already, that would be the end. The Alligator Archipelago was probably lost by that point: a collection of disorganized island nations didn't stand a chance against the humans; if Mario was overpowered, Donkey Kong would be too. Then there was the Waffle Kingdom – isolated on the other side of the world, they had grown complacent and docile, and would have no choice but to surrender when the human warships appeared off their shores.

Bowselta sighed: she couldn't believe that the world's only hope lay with the wife of a Mario Bro. The only reason the Sarasaland forces had been able to hold their own was that they weren't taken by surprise, unlike the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms. Their army was almost as large as the Koopas, but like Bowser's army during the peak of his conflicts with Mario, Sarasaland would eventually run out of soldiers, and then mere citizens would be sent out to fight, and that would be the beginning of the end. After that, only the Kremling Pirates would be left, scurrying about in the south, pestering the humans with their cannons and swords as they were slowly hunted down, one-by-one, just like the Dragon-Koopas.

Bowselta crawled forwards to the mouth of the narrow cave; it was high up on the mountain and faced the northeast, so perched there on her hands and knees, she could see the ocean in the distance. She thought of the portal that lay out in the ocean, and Bowser Jr.'s words echoed in her head. He hated her, and she was starting to hate herself. She could no longer cover the scar on her leg with her hand; the black had spread an inch in all directions since she told Bowser she was dying. He wasn't surprised – he had known all along; he was glad she finally told him the truth, but Bowselta could tell it hurt him that she had taken so long to do it. Staring at the ocean, a burning sensation welled up in her throat, and it took some effort to wrench her eyes away and think about something other than the mistakes that had led her, her friends and her family into that cave.

She looked across the Clubban mountains, deciding which of the jagged peaks the Dragon-Koopas should check next. She had a feeling the group they were in would continue to prove empty, and so she looked beyond them, at the mountains that were barely visible through the smoggy Dark Land air.

Suddenly, she caught sight of it.

It wasn't a very remarkable mountain; it was the same colour of the other mountains and it wasn't quite as tall as some of its neighbours, which was its only real distinguishing feature, but somehow, Bowselta felt a need to go to that mountain.

"Shift change!" said Bowser, crawling up behind Bowselta. Taking advantage of the rare bit or privacy, Bowser rubbed up against his mate as he advanced, running his snout along her tail, her left thigh and her side, all the while making a guttural purring sound that he usually reserved for their bedroom. The vibrations set Bowselta's hair on end, and if she hadn't been in the midst of an epiphany, she may have collapsed in a quivering heap beneath her lover's touch. But despite keeping the majority of her wits about her, as Bowser reached her neck and started slurping his tongue along her scales, she still had a hard time finding her voice.

"I think I…"

"Don't worry… they're all… fast… asleep," he murmured, slipping his shoulder beneath Bowselta's arm and gently pushing her over into a reclining position against the curving wall of the tunnel so that he had unobstructed access to her open mouth.

Bowselta gladly returned the kiss, entwining her fingers in his dirty and tangled mane as their tongues got reacquainted. However, as soon as Bowser's lips travelled back down to her neck, she started to speak. "I think you should take a look at a mountain."

"We've been doing that all day," groaned Bowser, playfully nibbling at his mate's jugular. "This is more fun."

"Mmmm, but this mountain is _different_," moaned Bowselta, wishing Bowser would do something less distracting with his hands.

"_Sure_ it is," said Bowser skeptically, before crushing his lips back onto Bowselta's before she could protest.

"But it really is," she insisted, pulling free. She then slapped his amorous hands away too. "And stop that!"

Bowser sighed and plunked his head onto Bowselta's shoulder in defeat. "Fine… you're the boss." He then sat up straight and looked out of the cave. "So, where's this mountain you're so hot for, hmmm? It better be pretty darn sexy to beat me out for-" Bowser stopped cold.

"You see it?" whispered Bowselta.

"I think so… it's the grey one, right?"

"Bowser, this is _serious_!" Bowselta childishly slapped at Bowser's shoulder.

"I know, I know!" said Bowser, holding up his arm in defense, but not taking his eyes off the horizon. "Man, you're not letting me have _any_ fun today."

"But you do feel it, right?" Bowselta sidled up closer to Bowser, putting her face next to his and following his gaze to the mountain. "Like… we _need_ to be there."

"Yeah… I feel it…" said Bowser. He then turned his gaze on his mate; she was so close, he could almost taste the sweat their brief moment had brought to her brow. "I'm feeling something else too."

"Pervert!" she chuckled, pushing away from him and turning to crawl back down the cave. "If I had known Emerald was going to be such a bad influence on you boys-"

"But I've always been this way – and why are you leaving? The party's just getting started." Bowser playfully grabbed Bowselta's retreating tail, but she wriggled it free of his grasp with a chuckle.

"I'm going to wake everyone up: we need to get to that mountain."

"But you haven't slept at all!"

"I don't care."

"_I_ care: you need to rest. The mountain will still be there tonight-"

"They won't be able to _see_ it tonight. We'll stop when it gets dark and sleep more then," Bowselta paused and looked back up at Bowser, her eyes twinkling. "This is it Bowser – the Mystic Meteor's in that mountain. It's _calling_ to us! It wants us to save the world!"

As she continued on, Bowser turned back to the world-saving, mood-killing mountain. _I hope she's right_ _– the sooner we save the world, the sooner she's gonna let me back in._

-xxx-

Emerald and Roy were the only ones who didn't feel the intuitive attraction to the mountain; the Koopaling figured it was because he wasn't a very magical creature, and Emerald decided it simply wasn't in her blood. "None of my ancestors were Cloopas," she had shrugged. "You see, I _told_ you guys Koopa trusted in the Clubbas." She nor Roy protested when the others almost unanimously agreed to follow the mountain's call immediately (Morton and Junior would have preferred to sleep a little longer first, but they were overruled). They travelled long into the night, driven onwards by the tantalizingly close proximity to their goal and guided by a pair of compasses (courtesy of Roy and Bowselta, who had them tucked away in their hammerspace). Eventually they were forced to make camp in a cave, though unlike the last one, it did not contain a snack for the weary Dragon-Koopas.

They started off again at sunrise the next day, finally reaching the base of the mountain as the sky grew dark once more. While the mountain itself no longer seemed to pull the Dragon-Koopas forward, the cave they spotted on their final approach did, and they managed to find some shelter directly below it shortly after nightfall. It was a shallow depression and a rainy night, and the Dragon-Koopas slept in a shivering tangle of limbs. Bowselta stood watch the entire time, too nervous and excited about finding the Mystic Meteor, and partly because the black mark on her leg had started to burn. She wondered if it was because she was so close to the Meteor; perhaps the black human magic within the scar was reacting to the light magic of the Mushroom World. However, Bowselta didn't mind the pain; compared to the horrible coldness that filled her body when she was first shot, the white hot pain in her leg was a comfort. It meant she was still alive.

The rain cleared up by morning, and the Dragon-Koopas started their slow ascent of the mountain. Fortunately, Ludwig had fully recovered days previously, and was able to use his electric teleportation powers to move himself up the mountain. It was a very draining ability, and so until that point, he mostly relied on Bowser and Roy to help him scale the mountains, but the cliffs were too steep this time. Roy and Morton also had to call on their abilities and wall-climb up the steepest spots, a skill that Emerald also possessed. The three of them would then haul Bowser up using a length of rope (though Roy did most of the work), while Ludwig watched. Bowser and Roy then brought up Bowselta, and she helped lift the rest of the Koopalings and Crystal up to the ledge.

The mountain wasn't very tall, but the cave was fairly high up, and the going was long and slow. "I can see why Koopa thought the Meteor would be safe here," grumbled Bowser as he helped haul the last Koopaling (Larry) up to a ledge for the fifth time in just over two hours. "I doubt a single Clubba ever dared to climb this mountain."

"Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I'm sure Ludwig's right about the laziness factor," said Emerald, smiling over at the eldest Koopaling.

As Larry stumbled onto the ledge, Ludwig got to his feet, gripping onto the cliff for support. "Vell, zis is zee last stretch," he said, looking up.

"You're looking pretty wiped," Bowselta frowned. "Maybe we should haul you up this time."

"I know _I_ can't climb another wall!" panted Morton, who was sprawled on the ledge by Ludwig's foot.

"Dat's cuz you're so fat," mocked Roy. "I may not be all dat magical, but I could go on like dis all day."

"That's because, unlike you, I have a life outside the gym," jeered Morton.

"Boys, settle down," warned Bowselta, before turning back to Ludwig. "Are you sure-"

"Yes," said Ludwig firmly, before looking down at Morton. "Move," he commanded.

The younger Koopaling sighed but did as he was told, and in a flash of lightning, Ludwig had disappeared. Another thunderclap above their heads told the Dragon-Koopas that he had made it even before he called out: "Zis is it!"

Ludwig stared into the inky black cave, gripping onto the rim of the mouth to keep from falling over as he regained his composure. He was glad he had reached the cave – he couldn't have teleported again without a proper rest first. As Roy and Emerald clambered over the edge behind him, Ludwig smiled at them. "Feel anysing yet?"

"Actually… Yeah, I kinda do," said Roy, looking into the darkness before dismissing it with a shrug and throwing the rope down to Bowser.

Emerald also took hold of the rope as Bowser began his ascent. "I don't feel anything, except maybe some gas from that weird moss we ate last night."

"Yes, zat vas ill-advised," said Ludwig, massaging his belly apologetically as he turned back to the cave. "Blue plants are alvays trouble… But it _could_ be zee Meteor – my leg is tingling like mad. Or razzer, vat's left of it is."

"Couldn't that be from all the teleporting? My grandmother had lightning powers, and my dad said it gave her weird nerve issues later in life," said Emerald.

"Vell, I'd like to sink I have not reached 'later in life' just yet," said Ludwig cheekily; behind him, Bowser lurched onto the ledge.

"It doesn't look too spectacular," he remarked as he joined Roy and Emerald to in pulling Bowselta up the face of the mountain.

"The shrine's deep inside the mountain," speculated Emerald.

"Yeah, well, we'll see about that."

"You still don't think there's a shrine, do you?"

"At this point, I don't really care," said Bowser honestly as Bowselta joined them on the ledge. Next came Crystal, then Wendy, Junior, Morton, Lemmy, Iggy and finally Larry. Once they were all assembled, they hovered nervously just inside the mouth of the cave; the air seemed to snap with energy emanating from deep within the mountain. Bowselta's heart was hammering in her chest as she finally set off down the tunnel; the rest of the Dragon-Koopas followed her, too overwhelmed by the situation to notice that she was limping on her right side.

The tunnel wasn't a straight path: instead, it curved down and to the left; soon the light from the outside world disappeared behind the Dragon-Koopas, and they walked in silence and darkness. Eventually, a new light could be seen ahead of them – the familiar warm glow of a magical torch. In spite of the pain, Bowselta began to walk faster, straining to keep herself from breaking into a jog as the curved path turned into a short straightaway leading to chamber wherein the torchlight was dazzling compared to the blackness of the tunnel. The rest of the Dragon-Koopas also sped up at the sight, though Bowser and Ludwig were now falling behind as they hobbled along.

After what seemed like the longest walk Bowselta had ever taken, she burst into the full light of the semicircular chamber, striding forward a few more steps so that the others could gather around behind her and gaze at the life-size statue of Queen Koopa that stood across from the mouth of the tunnel. It was a magnificent work of art: every scale – every strand of hair – seemed to be etched into the stone, and the somber eyes looked like they could blink. It stood on a pedestal, upon which the name "KOOPA" was inscribed in ancient runes; more runes ran around the circular part of the room behind Koopa, but Bowselta and the other Koopas didn't bother reading them: their attention was focused on the stone statue and the artifacts it held. Gripped in the right hand was a glittering golden staff, similar to the one King Morton Koopa had used, but inlaid with a mesmerizing blue jewel instead of a green one like his. On the palm of the left hand sat the Mystic Meteor.

It was about the size of an adult Dragon-Koopa's head, and so the Koopa statue's fingers merely supported, rather than gripped onto the Meteor. It was deep metallic blue in colour, almost matching the jewel of Koopa's staff, but it wasn't nearly as beautiful: it was uneven, lumpy and filled with cavernous holes like Swiss Cheese. Bowselta never expected the space rock to be awe-inspiring, but still, looking at the Mystic Meteor in the statue's hand, Bowselta realized too late that something was wrong.

As Bowser and Ludwig finally entered the chamber, the air was filled with a cascade of explosions. The Dragon-Koopas yelped in pain as the tranquilizer darts punctured their flesh, most of them dropping to the floor instantly. Bowser and Bowselta both managed to stay conscious long enough to whirl around and watch as the magical cloak behind them was dropped: the chamber wasn't a semicircle, but a full circle, with the runes traveling all the way around. Before the second half of the runes stood Admiral Dave Griggs, his eyes locked on Bowselta's as she crumpled to the floor. Bowser's eyes had been on Peach, who was bound and gagged, standing beside Griggs, his gun planted firmly under her jaw as a way to control the Toad mages who had conjured up the cloak. He had known better than to trust Magikoopas to betray both their Royals and their patron saint, Koopa; he _had_ brought Kammy, but only as a witness to his victory. Kamek came because of Kammy, and that was fine with Griggs: he had gotten used to the ghost's presence. For his part, Kamek floated behind Kammy, too ashamed to let the Koopas he served for so many years see him accompanying the enemy of the entire Mushroom World.

Griggs laughed as one of his men shot Bowser a second time; he knew it was unnecessary: fighting unconsciousness was all the Dragon-Koopa could manage, and given a couple more seconds, he would have succumbed to the first dosage. The second sent his body into convulsions, and Peach strained against Griggs' grip on her upper arm, fresh tears pouring down her face as she watched her old friend writhe and then lie still with his family. At Griggs' command, his men lowered their tranquilizer guns and rushed forward, slipping chains onto their new prisoners; other men led the Toad mages away, and Griggs shoved Peach after them. He didn't bother watching as she struggled against her new captor, who emotionlessly jabbed the nose of his rifle into the back of her pretty blonde head; he also ignored Kammy's feeble attempts to break free as she too was lead away from the Dragon-Koopas.

Kamek floated up to Griggs as he regarded Bowselta's motionless form. "You got what you wanted: the King of the Koopas, the bitch who killed your brother, all their children… I held up my part of the deal!"

"Yes, yes," said Griggs airily as he stepped around Bowselta. "And your sister will be freed in time, but right now, I have more important things to tend to." Griggs reached up and lifted the Mystic Meteor from the Koopa statue's hands. It was freezing cold, but that was overwhelmed by the feeling of pure energy that filled the admiral's body. With the Mystic Meteor, he would finally be able to crush the Sarasaland resistance, and with the King and Queen of the Koopas safely in his clutches, he had no doubt that the Mushroom World itself would be his before the month was out.


	13. Admirable Admiral Griggs

Chapter 12: Admirable Admiral Griggs

Griggs whistled as he made his way down to the Mushroom Castle's dungeons. Everything was coming together so beautifully – except for a few minor details, that is, but those are to be expected and he wouldn't let them ruin his day. He walked down the first flight of stairs, still whistling his merry tune as he passed the cells brimming with captive Toads, many of whom were still sobbing over their imprisonment while others merely seethed.

"Be quiet, maggots!" roared one of the guards as the Toads yelled insults at his admiral.

Griggs laughed; soon, no one would dare show him that kind of disrespect, and so he ignored the Mushroomian profanities as he continued on towards the next flight of stairs.

Now he was below ground level, in the previously disused "solitary confinement" wing of the dungeon. Apparently, this level originally had more of the traditional barred cages found in the above-ground level, but during their brief occupation nine years previously, the Koopas added forcefield technology to the farthest cells. All of that had been trashed during Bowselta's last stay in Mushroom Castle, and King Toadstool decided to make his own renovations. The stone-walled cells were designed much like the Koopa Castle's cells, with prisoners behind soundproof walls and reinforced bulkheads: perfect for housing captured Dragon-Koopas. But by the time they were ready for use, the Koopas had stopped invading, and the dungeon had remained empty for over six years. But that was not the case anymore.

Griggs leisurely made his way down the hall, eventually stopping before the second-last cell. He nodded his head at one of the guards, who turned and unlocked the door without a word.

"I won't be long," said Griggs. "But no one else comes in until I come out, understood?"

"Sir. Yes sir." Said the two guards, saluting the admiral as he stepped inside.

As the door clicked shut behind him, Griggs simply stood back and gazed at the Dragon-Koopa. He could still hear the scientists begging him to spare the creatures, saying they were too beautiful a species to exterminate for one reason or another, but in Griggs opinion, there was nothing worth preserving about the Koopa Queen as she hung limply from her restraints. The Dragon-Koopas were far too dangerous to keep awake during their captivity – between their firebreath, brute strength, hammerspace abilities, poisonous bites and whatever other freak powers certain individuals possessed, there was just no point. However, Griggs knew he couldn't make public examples out of sedated prisoners – even if they were monsters, he needed them to be awake and on their feet when they met their ends. So, he put the good scientists to work, and had them develop restraints that would keep the Dragon-Koopas nearly immobile in an upright position. The finished product was a scaffolding of vertical poles, connected to the Dragon-Koopas by short lengths of chain running to metal collars on their upper arms, wrists, thighs, ankles and even their tails, using the two spikes as handy anchor points.

Another harness was set around their heads, fastened in place with loops of magically reinforced leather fastened around their horns and to a large metal ring running through their noses. The scientists had protested against "violently shoving pieces of metal through their nasal septums", but Griggs figured that if it was good enough for the bulls back home, it was good enough for these brutes too. Besides, they needed a secure anchor point up front, since the harness also included a complex Mushroomian device that ran into the Dragon-Koopas' mouths and down their throats, where it snuffed out the firebeath before it could even ignite. Griggs had been surpassed that the Toads had developed such an effective anti-dragonfire device, but his own scientists had grudgingly assured him that it worked like a charm, and that was good enough for him. The fact that the devices were also uncomfortable, demeaning and potentially damaging to the upper respiratory tracts of their wearers was an added benefit as far as the Admiral was concerned.

Griggs frowned when he saw that someone had returned Bowselta's charm before hooking her up to the framework: probably one of the damn anthropologists again. Weren't anthropologists people who study other _people_? Sure, this world had plenty of beats who walked and talked, but they weren't mankind, and many of them, like the Dragon-Koopas, were the _enemy_ of humans, so if anything, the anthropologists should be against the abominations. Griggs had half a mind to reach out and rip the charm off, but he had a feeling the leather strap was enchanted, so he decided to not bother dulling his blade with such a trivial matter. He even supposed it was a good thing the prisoners weren't stripped of all their possessions and clothing: it'd make them less piteous and thus, less like martyrs when their time came.

After getting a nice long look at the Dragon-Koopa, Griggs reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. He would have loved to bring a few more toys on this visit, but that would be going a little too far, and so all that was in the box were a pair of medical syringes. He took the smaller one out and put the box away, stepping forward and disconnecting the IV drip running out of Bowselta's left arm. The doctors had told him to wait a few minutes between disconnecting the sedative and administering the stimulant, but what did he care if she experienced "some discomfort" as the chemicals ducked it out in her neural net? _It's her own damn fault for being such a bitch_, figured Griggs, as he jabbed the small needle into her left thigh.

-x-

Slowly, Bowselta swam back to consciousness. As feeling returned to her body, she realized she was hanging by a series of uncomfortable restraints, connected to her limbs and to some sort of harness fastened around her head. Holding perfectly still to try and fool her captor into thinking she was still asleep, Bowselta's mind raced to try and piece together everything that had happened. She remembered being shot in Koopa's Shrine, but after that she couldn't make heads or tails of the blurry, bright flashes of semi-consciousness that punctured the darkness of her captivity. She couldn't even recall her dreams.

"I know you're awake," growled Griggs, poking at Bowselta's right leg with the barrel of his handgun. "There's no point playing possum."

Bowselta twitched as the cold metal jutted into her flesh, but surprisingly, it didn't set the Mark of the Dead on fire. She had wondered if the fact her leg had ached before capture was due to the proximity of the human weaponry, but evidently, that wasn't the case. Sure, her leg still pained her, but it wasn't nearly as bad as her headache, or the burning sensation running down her throat.

"I said, _wake up_!" ordered Griggs, striking Bowselta with his weapon more forcefully.

"No, you didn't," hissed the Queen of the Koopas, unable to speak properly because the harness around her head prevented her from opening her mouth; the instrument running over her tongue and down her throat didn't help either. When she opened her eyes, she found she had one further restriction imposed on her by the harness: there were blinders blocking her vision, but she didn't let that phase her. "You said 'I know you're awake', not 'wake up'."

"A wise guy, huh?"

"A wise _girl_," corrected Bowselta as she stiffly planted her feet more firmly on the ground and supported her own weight, finally relieving the regions of her arms and legs that she had been hanging from in the apparatus.

"Now now, you ottta mind your manners – I'll only tolerate so much lip out of my prisoners before I get mad, and you wouldn't want that, now would you?"

"And what do _you_ want? If you're not here to trade barbs with me, why _are_ you here? Or better yet, why are you humans even in this world to begin with?"

"A better question is why _you_ were in _my_ world," hissed Griggs. "Cuz that's why _I'm_ here."

"I was in your world because of an accident," sighed Bowselta. "I was flying my plane over the ocean when the interdimensional portal suddenly opened up, sucked me through and stranded me on Earth."

"Yeah, I've heard that story before, and ya know what? I don't believe it."

"Well you _should_ – it's the truth. We have everything written down in our official records, history books, encyclopedias – everything!"

"Not everything," growled Griggs. "I'm a thorough man, and I did my research: I had my boys comb through every scrap of information about your 'accident' available to us – and 'scrap' is an overstatement for what we found."

"Then you were obviously looking in the wrong places."

Griggs' grip on the gun tightened. "I don't think you fully understand the situation you have found yourself in. Your kingdom is under my control, as are the Mushroom and Beanbean Kingdom, and Sarasaland is going to fall any day now. You and your entire family are in custody, and I have the authority to put my gun to your forehead and pull the trigger right here, right now."

Ignoring the sinking sensation she felt upon hearing that the Beans had succumbed as well, Bowselta smiled again. "Really? You're allowed to gun down a restrained and sedated prisoner just because she showed a little spunk? I didn't think the American government was _that_ corrupt… at least, I'm assuming you're American, seeing as I don't actually know who you are – the accent fits, but I guess it could always be Canadian, or-"

"The name's Griggs, _Admiral_ Dave Griggs, of the Navy of the United States of America. Sound familiar?"

"Why should it sound-"

"Because I'm not the first Griggs you've come across, am I?"

"What, did I steal some valuables from your mother, or something? I robbed a lot of people – it's nothing personal, I swear," said Bowselta dryly.

"Oh you took something from my mother all right – but you're damn wrong that it isn't personal! Now tell me everything you did on Earth, or so help me, I will drag your children in here, one by one, and shoot them all!"

"You can't do that!" hissed Bowselta.

Griggs smiled: he had hit a nerve. "I have been given the authority to do whatever I need to in order to ensure that you beasts will never come through that portal and pose a threat to my country – my _world _– ever again."

"That was _never_ our intention-"

"I have reports that say otherwise," sneered Griggs, sauntering around the room.

"_What?_" The Queen of the Koopas truly did not know what he was talking about.

"Maybe you did go through the portal by accident the first time, but you can't deny that you _were_ looking for it."

"Yes, but not to attack you-"

"I disagree."

"Well, you're mistaken!"

"Then enlighten me," said Griggs, leaning on the scaffolding holding Bowselta in place. "Tell me what I want to know or I will go out there and tell my men to drag your youngest son in here and-"

"I've been _trying_ to tell you what happened-"

"No, all you've told me is that my information is wrong, and that you mean us no harm!" As Bowselta got more and more agitated, Griggs got more invigorated.

"Both of which are true – what more do you want?" said the queen plaintively. "Do you want details about what happened, then fine: pull up a chair and I'll tell you! After my plane was destroyed by the portal I floated adrift at sea with the wreckage for a couple days until I spotted land – I don't remember the name of the island, anymore, I'm afraid. Anyway, I swam ashore, found a port, and stowed away in the belly of a small cargo boat heading to Florida, where I laid low for a while. I knew I needed to get back through the portal, but for that I'd need something sturdy that could go underwater and that was large enough to accommodate me. So, I started stealing stuff in order to amass enough money to buy a submarine – oh, and I really hope you're not expecting me to remember every robbery and every stolen trinket, because I assure you, I _can't possibly_ remember any of that."

"That's fine: I only want the big details."

"Well, the next 'big detail' was that I went to New York because the pickings were better there than in Florida, and the sewers and subway systems meant I could travel around the entire city unnoticed. And that was pretty much my life for the next two or so years, until-" Bowselta paused, as realization slowly dawned on her. "Oh no, you don't think all the crap Bowser pulled was an invasion, do you?"

"If by 'crap' you mean the castle that appeared in Antarctica, the countless artifacts stolen around the world, and the flying warship that appeared in New York City, then yes, I do."

"Well, you're wrong: that was all part of an elaborate and idiotic attempt to rescue me."

"That's not what the books say: according to the Mushroom Kingdom's records, Bowser was planning to melt Antarctica-"

"With _hairdryers_ he'd mail-order using the money he got from selling the stolen artifacts?" finished Bowselta incredulously. "That was a cover story – and a ridiculous one at that: my husband's an idiot, but even he's not stupid enough to think he could melt a continent using _hairdryers_. And surely you can't believe it was his actual plan either."

"I spoke to Mario: he believed it – which is why he tried to stop it."

"Mario's an idiot too: he doesn't think, he just _does_," spat Bowselta.

Griggs laughed. "And what he does is defeat you and your mate over and over and over – isn't that right? I can see why you resent it, but perhaps if you weren't such greedy tyrants he wouldn't feel the need to interfere, just as my people wouldn't have felt the need to launch a pre-emptive strike against you."

"It wasn't pre-emptive, nor was it just against my people – you captured Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom as well: that's where we are now, isn't it? I can smell that distinctive Toad odor…" _despite the metal rod jammed through my nose_, finished Bowselta in her mind, but she wouldn't give Griggs the satisfaction of hearing her complain.

"We're getting off-topic," Griggs coolly changed the subject as he circled around the room. Bowselta smirked: she knew the humans were corrupt.

"But there is nothing else to say: you already know about Bowser's failed forays into your world, so what-"

"So what's left to discuss?" snapped Griggs; he was getting close to his _pièce de résistance_, and he could barely keep his excited fury out of his voice. "_Your_ role in the invasions, of course."

"They weren't invasions and I had no part in them: Bowser never found me."

"But he came close, didn't he?" said Griggs, once more grabbing hold of the scaffolding. "With that warship in New York – don't deny it, I _know_ you were there too."

Bowselta paled. "I- wha- _how?_"

"How do I know you were there?" Griggs' voice was barely a whisper. "Because… you killed my brother."

Bowselta was motionless for a moment as she realized just what was going on. Admiral Griggs wasn't just there to protect his world as he had been ordered – he was there for revenge, and that made him _much_ more dangerous. "…The policeman… was your brother?"

"My younger brother. He had just joined the force when he came across an alien scouting below a warship hovering over Central Park, and was _murdered_ by it, in cold blood."

"Not in cold blood – in self-defense," corrected Bowselta, trying to choose her words carefully. "I didn't even see your brother until he shot me – I just wanted to go home. When he came to investigate, I had no choice but to kill him – or he would have killed me."

"You burned him alive," hissed Griggs.

"No, I broke his neck – short and painless, unlike the death de delivered me: take a look at my leg. That black mark has grown out of the bullet wound I sustained all those years ago, and it will continue to grow until I die a lingering death, drowning in pain and coldness."

"You deserve it," said Griggs venomously.

"What happened in Central Park was regrettable – _everything_ that happened on Earth was a terrible series of mistakes and misjudgments; please believe me when I tell you that if I could take it all back, I would."

"That doesn't change the fact that my brother is dead," said Griggs woodenly.

"I know," sighed Bowselta. "But if you're here for revenge, you need not bother: your brother saw to it that I _will_ die, so-"

"Yes, but that's not enough for me," said Griggs, leaning back from the Dragon-Koopa. "You bastards came to my world, killed my brother and endangered countess others, stole our national treasures and then sent your hated war criminals the Marios through for us to deal with-"

Bowselta had a feeling he knew about that too. "They posed your world no threat: they were the ones who returned your artifacts and sent Bowser back here the first two times – they're on your side."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? _Wrong!_ This entire world is the enemy of my world, and I was sent here to make sure we wouldn't have to worry about _anyone_ coming through that portal again – be they Koopa, Mario or God knows what else."

"_Nothing_ else, _never_ again," said Bowselta pleadingly. Griggs made her stomach turn, but if begging was the only way she could get him to call off his war, she'd beg.

"The damage has been done," said Griggs finally. "And you will pay for it with your life: the preparations have been made, and you and your entire family will be executed at noon tomorrow." By that point Griggs had the second syringe out, and he once more moved in close to Bowselta, who was too stunned to speak. As he injected her arm with the tranquilizer, he leaned up towards her drooping head, so that his words would be the last thing she heard before going under. "Everything that I have done, and everything I will do here, is because of you and what you did to my family all those years ago: remember that as you burn in hell with yours."

Griggs turned on his heel and left without another world as Bowselta made a feeble attempt to speak before succumbing to the drugs and slumping back into her restraints. The Admiral instructed one of the guards outside to reconnect Bowselta's IV drip, and then walked away without looking back. He didn't even cast his eye over the doors to the other Dragon-Koopa holding cells, and as he mounted the stairs out of the dungeon, he began to whistle another merry tune.


	14. Execution

Chapter 13: Execution

The stadium was still under construction, but Griggs insisted they used it for the execution of the Koopan royal family and any other troublemakers they decided to make examples of in the future. He said that since there were no seats installed, prisoners could be marched in and out and kept under control with greater ease. He had bars quickly welded onto the windowless private boxes to turn them into holding cells for the spectators the admiral jokingly referred to as "VIP"s, including Princess Peach, her father, Mario and Luigi, and the members of the royal family of the recently captured Beanbean Kingdom. Especially dangerous prisoners, such as Kammy, the Lakipas captured with the Koopan royal family, and a violent little Beanish man the humans had discovered hiding in the Mushroom Castle's basement, were also kept in the boxes. However, these prisoners were accompanied by guards and weren't allowed to move around their cells freely like the comparatively harmless VIPs.

Everyone who could be controlled safely were herded into the stands, where they stood in chain-gangs, secured to metal posts driven into the cement below them and watched over by numerous armed guards. Many of the human soldiers thought the whole thing was archaic, and many more thought making such a big deal about shooting ten restrained dragons was foolish, but Griggs was adamant. He was sure that watching the infamous Bowser and his family silenced after decades of causing the Mushroom World grief would help quell the last flames of resistance in the captured citizens, and perhaps even convince Sarasaland to give up their futile fighting. For that reason, he made sure the whole thing would be televised worldwide, using multiple cameras to capture the action from every angle.

To Griggs' delight, one of the two planned jumbotrons had already been installed in the wall that made up one end of the stadium (with the seating forming a horseshoe around the square staging area). Griggs had read that the stadium wasn't meant for sports, but for concerts and other showy events such as royal weddings – indeed, the marriage of Princess Daisy and Luigi was meant to be held there originally, but had been moved elsewhere because of construction delays. Some of Griggs' planners had beseeched him to follow suit, but he didn't care if the place was incomplete and littered with construction equipment (some of which he had removed, though installing bars and other equipment for prisoner containment had taken priority). The one thing that irritated him was the scaffolding still connected to the wall and surrounding the balcony from which he planned to oversee the execution, but removing it would have compromised the unfinished façade's structural integrity and so he grudgingly let it be.

However, looking out over the filling stadium, Griggs decided his compromise wasn't so bad. The Dragon-Koopas were beneath the staging area, their restraints being secured to the elevators that would carry them up through trapdoors in the floor. Once the prisoners in the audience were settled and secured, the IV drips would be removed from the Dragon-Koopas and they would be prodded into consciousness, so that they'd be standing when they appeared in the arena. Their blinders would also be removed, since Griggs didn't want them to be meek and sympathetic martyrs: the closer they were to their usual, vicious selves, the better.

"Sir, all the guards have reported in: the prisoners are secured in the stands, as are the high-risk prisoners in the boxes. The VIPs are being shown to their cells as we speak."

"Good. Tell them to start rousing the Dragon-Koopas."

"Yes sir," saluted the soldier, turning back to his radio. Griggs smiled and looked around the stadium again while slowly running his hand possessively across the Mystic Meteor, which sat on a stand to his right. Behind him, Kamek glowered at the action from the shadows.

As if sensing the undead Magikoopa's gaze, Griggs spoke up. "It's almost over, my friend. Soon we will have our revenge."

"And my sister will have her freedom?"

"Yes, she will," Griggs ignored the questioning tone in Kamek's voice: they both knew his response was a lie.

-VIP Box-

As soon as the guards let her into the cell, Peach ran to the bars and surveyed the scene below her.

The Koopas seemed to be the most numerous captives in the stands, though there were many Goomba, Koopa Troopa and Hammer Bro. citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom, so Peach wasn't going to say for certain that her people were in the minority as she scanned the lines of chained Toads. The Beanbean Kingdom hadn't put up much of a fight: King Peasley had the willpower, but not the manpower, and so only a handful of Beans could be seen in the crowd. Conversely, quite a few sections of the stands housed members of the Sarasalandish army who had been fortunate enough to merely get _captured_ during the many blood-filled battles with the humans. Even though Peach was up fairly high, she could clearly see that many of them sported heavy injuries, and while the humans had let them be treated by their captured Toad, Koopa and Pionpi doctors, it still broke her heart.

She looked across at the other boxes, and could see that some were filled with troublesome prisoners such as Lakitus and Magikoopas, though others only had a couple occupants (or only one, such as herself), who stood back from the bars and were obscured in the shadows. Peach was in a straight section of the stadium and couldn't see inside her neighboring cells, though if the angry Engrish emanating from somewhere to her right was any indication, Fawful was in the next box over. Peach sighed: if they even managed to catch a character as slippery as him, perhaps the humans really did have the Mushroom World in the palm of their hand. She had tried to stay positive: surely Mario and Luigi would escape, or maybe Daisy would save the day for once, and if not them, Wario and Waluigi were still unaccounted for, last she heard…

But now that she was standing above hundreds of prisoners, minutes away from watching Bowser die, she truly felt helpless. After all those years, she couldn't believe he had finally reached the end of his rope – and he wouldn't even get to go out in the heat of battle. _It wasn't supposed to end like this_, she thought as a lump formed in her throat. _Please, not like this._

-Balcony-

"Sir, the Dragon-Koopas are on their feet," announced the soldier sitting at the radio.

"Excellent, send them up," said Griggs, reaching down and hitting a crude switch jutting out of the balcony's barrier, where a more sophisticated control panel would eventually go. Fortunately, all Griggs needed was the one switch, which magically amplified his voice throughout the stadium. Taking a cue, the soldier working the jumbotron behind the scenes brought a live feed of Griggs onto the screen, and the murmuring of the crowd ceased.

"People of the Mushroom World," began Griggs. "Today, you will witness history. Two hundred years ago, humans from Earth first came to this world and engaged in pitched battle with the people now known as Koopas. That war ended in a cease-fire, but that peace was violated twelve years ago when Queen Bowselta Koopa came through the portal to Earth, giving us no choice but to retaliate…"

As Griggs delivered his speech, the Dragon-Koopas were brought up into the arena on a set of floating platforms, which then locked in place in the stadium floor. Bowser and the Koopalings blinked disorientedly in the sunlight, but Bowselta's head was already clear by the time her face appeared on the jumbotron as Griggs spoke her name. She suspected it was because he had already roused her from the tranquilizers the day before, and so her body had begun developing a resistance to the drugs, or was at least more acclimated to coming out of the stupor they induced. Either way, she was thankful for it, as she was able to stand tall (or as tall as the restraints let her) while the cameras were on her, her eyes devoid of anger or despair.

The screen soon returned to showing Griggs as he continued with his speech, allowing Bowselta to turn her attention to the Koopalings lined up next to her while Griggs droned on in the background. "…This war has progressed much differently than the one two centuries ago: we have captured the Mushroom, Koopa and Beanbean Kingdoms, and the Alligator Archipelago is at the mercy of our second fleet in the South…"

-x-

The Dragon-Koopas were lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, with about three feet separating them from each other. Bowselta was at the far right while Bowser was opposite her, with the Koopalings seemingly placed in no particular order between them. Next to Bowselta was Roy, and then Iggy, who was shaking in fear, and Morton, who seemed torn between horror and curiosity as his eyes darted around the stadium.

While that was all the Koopa Queen could clearly see, up above, Peach had a clear view of the Koopas. To Morton's left was a tearful Wendy, then Lemmy, whose face was unreadable. Next to him, Ludwig sagged in his restraints, unable to stand completely on his one remaining leg as the tranquilizers' effects lingered in his weakened body; seeing the Koopaling in such a sorry state hurt Peach more than she could have imagined.

Beside Ludwig was Junior, who had angry tears in his eyes as he faced death without the dignity of his scarf to hide his nearly toothless mouth from the public (the fabric had been replaced around his neck, like all the other Koopalings' clothing, but it was not brought up to his face). Between Junior and Bowser was Larry, his eyes downcast; unlike his father, who was now trying desperately to rip free of his restraints, growling all manner of draconian obscenities through his mouthpiece, the Koopaling knew it was futile to struggle.

-x-

"…Sarasaland, you are still fighting us, but I hope that after today you will understand why you have no choice but to surrender – for you see, people of the Mushroom World, your heroes have failed you, the Stars have forsaken you, and there is no Queen Koopa to save you. The leaders of the Koopa Kingdom were captured trying to retrieve the Mystic Meteor, but they could not repeat the miracle of Queen Koopa, and the Meteor is in my possession, so don't you see: the war is lost! …"

-x-

At the other end of the line, Bowselta was also straining against her bonds, her mind racing as she formed one last, desperate plan. Having gotten a good look at Roy's harnesses, Bowselta figured one swipe would easily break the leather straps looped around the horns (even if they were magically reinforced), and while the nose-ring posed more a problem, getting free of it was still doable. She just needed her hands free, and while the humans had hampered her ability to pull things out of hammerspace by placing thick metal bars across her palms (preventing her fingers and thumbs from connecting and then separating to draw out an item), she was not foiled just yet.

-x-

"…These Dragon-Koopas, the last symbols of the great Queen Koopa and the age-old cease-fire you foolishly call a victory against Earth, have been brought here to die, and with them, I hope your own desire to fight and die will be silenced. Do not pity them, for they brought this fate upon themselves – and all of _you_ as well – when they invaded Earth, pillaged our cities, endangered our citizens and murdered those who would protect our world…"

-x-

Bowselta held her breath as she spread the fingers of her right hand as far apart as possible, finally sighing with relief as her little golden skeleton key materialized. In an instant, she had the key securely held between her fore- and middle fingers, and making sure the guards nearest her didn't notice what she was up to, she contorted her hand and plunged the key into the lock on the underside of her wrist. Thankful that the humans had opted to go oldschool with the restraints and glad she hadn't forgotten her old escape-artist tricks, the former Shadow Thief soon had her right hand free, but she didn't move it just yet. Instead, she sucked the key away and summoned it again in her left hand, where she repeated the process.

-x-

"…And do not mourn them either, people of the Mushroom World, for they have wronged you as well: I have seen your history, and I know how often the Koopas have threatened their neighboring countries. I know too, how many _Koopan_ lives have been lost in pointless battles against foes King Bowser and Queen Bowselta _knew_ they could not defeat – pointless battles much like the ones many are still waging against us. We do not _want_ to slaughter the people of this world: we only wish to protect _our_ world, and once the Koopas are gone, will the rest of you be so foolish as to step up and replace them as our enemies? …"

-x-

Bowselta's heart was hammering painfully in her chest as she planned out her next moves. There was no chance that she would survive this – there were too many soldiers, but she couldn't just stand by and let Griggs destroy everything she loved. If the Stars had a shred of decency, Bowselta silently beseeched them to help her kill Griggs – not for her, not for her children, not even for the Koopa Kingdom, but for everyone and anyone who was still able to fight the invaders and save the Mushroom World. As long he lived, the world as she knew it would die, because she knew the admiral's talk of solidarity with the Mushroomians was a lie – and so did his soldiers, who Bowselta could see were only half-listening, their eyes glazed over. But she could use that: all she needed was a few seconds' head-start to get free of her restraints, and all she needed for that was for the guards nearest her to let their attention waver for just one moment.

-Balcony-

Oblivious to Bowselta's machinations, Griggs smiled confidently as he entered the home stretch of his speech. The end of all his troubles was at hand, and he couldn't be happier. "…I beg of you, people of the Mushroom World, watch as King Bowser Koopa, Queen Bowselta Koopa, and their treacherous brood finally pay for all the evils they have done towards _all_ of us. Rejoice with us, and help us put their corruption behind us so that we can move towards a brighter future. Let us-"

-x-

In a flash, Bowselta raised her hands to the sides of her head, jabbing her nails through the leather and ripping the harness forwards. With a single, fluid motion of her hands, she summoned a knife from hammerspace and before the humans knew what was happening, she had sliced through her own nose, clearing a path for the ring to come free. She ripped the mechanism from her throat and fire erupted from her mouth, made more powerful by the magically flammable blood and venom that spilled from her jaws (the former because of the device's damage, the latter by her own choice). The humans yelled in alarm as Bowselta surrounded herself in fire and Griggs roared in fury as he saw what was unfolding beneath him.

As the guards came to their senses and began firing blindly into the torrent of flames, Bowselta sprang forward, the knife joined by her sword, which she had used to cut through the chains that had still held her under the cover of her fire. She sent another jet of flames at the nearest guards as she dashed across the arena, causing them to drop their guns and leap out of the way. But she couldn't stop all of them, and bullets rained down on the Koopa Queen from every direction. Some ricocheted off her shell while others made themselves useful and broke some of the bands of metal still fastened to her limbs and tail.

Bowselta continued to shoot fire all around and in front of her to distract the humans and obscure their target, but before long the first bullet hit home and bored into her leg just above where Griggs' brother's first shot had pierced her. The familiar iciness filled Bowselta as she fell, tumbling head-over-tail across the flaming ground; however, her consciousness and powers did not leave her as they had on Earth: she was surrounded by the magic of her world, and she could feel the Meteor itself giving her strength. Without skipping a beat or dropping either blade, she was back on her feet, running with only a slight limp through the burning fire and freezing pain as more bullets flew after her.

-Balcony-

"Shoot her! Shoot her!" screamed Griggs, as Kamek smiled grimly at his fragmenting plan. Bowselta was always good at screwing things up for other people, and while her efforts were undoubtedly in vain, at least she'd make Griggs sweat. Kamek sighed, _too bad it won't work…_ If Griggs was eliminated, Travali would be in charge, and then maybe the Mushroom World would see some mercy. Perhaps everyone _wouldn't_ die pointless deaths… Perhaps _Kammy_ wouldn't die.

Suddenly, the admiral changed tactics. "No, wait! Shoot the rest of them! Show them all that we will not tolerate this! Maker her sorry!"

Kamek felt disgusted as he heard the order. Letting Bowselta get her brains blown out was one thing – she deserved it – but Kamek never wanted the Koopalings to die: they were Morton's flesh and blood. And he had always felt bad for betraying Bowser. If he could, Kamek would have tried to save Kammy in a way that didn't get the Koopas killed (besides Bowselta), but he didn't have a choice: he was _dead_ – he did all he _could_ do. Didn't he?

But, as he listened to Griggs give the order to kill Bowser and the Koopalings and thought about the order he would undoubtedly give to kill Kammy, the old Magikoopa realized something. He had always justified his actions as being for the greater good, whether it was poisoning Bowselta to try and end her cancerous influence on the Koopa King, betraying that same king to try and make his children into the rulers he could never be, or selling the whole lot of them to a madman in a vain attempt to save his sister. He didn't deny that much of what he did was also influenced by his own emotions, be they greed, anger or even love, but he still clung to the excuse that he had no choice – now more than ever. He had helped Griggs because he couldn't kill him, and decided to make the best of a hopeless situation by getting revenge on Bowselta and in his mind, fulfilling the promise he had made to his parents as they lay dying to watch over his sister until the end.

That was the most he could do: it was fate – it was written in the smoke of crystal balls, in the twinkling of the stars, in the patterns of playing cards, in the pages of prophesies… _He had no choice._ Not then. But as Bowselta dashed across the stadium floor, surrounded by fire and blood as she desperately hacked down every human that got in her way, Kamek saw another possibility emerging: if Bowselta _did_ manage to kill Griggs, things would be different. Vice-Admiral Travali would be in charge, and unlike Griggs, he wasn't out for blood: he was _only_ following orders to protect Earth. Surely _he_ would realize the Mushroom World posed him no harm, or at least take pity on an old Koopan witch and the brother who lingered beyond death to protect her.

In that instant, Kamek realized what he had to do – fate be damned. He made his choice, and shot forwards straight into Admiral Griggs.

"Kill them all! Kill- I- Ahhh!" Griggs cringed as the ghost took control of his body. The gun on Griggs' hip and the alien nature of his soul filled Kamek with a corrosive, white hot pain, the likes of which he hadn't experienced even in life, but he would not give up. He had to buy Bowselta time – and maybe even spare Morton's kin in the process – and there was only one way to do that. "I- I mean kill her!" cried Kamek, using Griggs; voice. "Not them! Kill her, idiots, HER!"

"Sir, are you okay?" yelped Griggs' aid – the one charged with holding Koopas staff. The man operating the radio also looked at his commander with concern.

"I'm fine! Arrgh, CEASE FIRE!"

-Arena-

The first of two throwing knives imbedded itself squarely between the eyes of the marksman taking aim at Bowselta. The second knife killed the man to his right, and the one to the left was too startled to shoot before the Koopa Queen was on top of him, slicing him through the middle with her sword as she passed by. There was no time to retrieve the knives, and she used a wave of fire to block the soldiers in the stands from shooting her as she neared her goal.

With a grunt, she threw her sword forward like a javelin, watching as it took out two of the bottom support beams of the scaffolding clinging to the wall on the opposite side of the balcony from the jumbotron. As the structure buckled and began to fall, the humans beneath it fled, but Bowselta ran towards the destruction, for beneath it lay a perfect catapult: a long wooden board haphazardly thrown atop some boxes. When Bowselta alighted on the one end of the board, the other end was pushed high into the air, just in time to meet the falling tower. Even Bowselta was surprised at her good timing, but as she was flung into the air she didn't dwell on it, and instead sent a blast of firebreath down onto the wreckage below her, rocketing herself higher into the air.

It was then that 'Griggs' ordered the ceasefire, and while Bowselta was puzzled by the move, again, she knew better than to question her fortune as she became level with the balcony. Without fear of being shot from below, she let out a stream of fire directly at the admiral, but it was then that her luck ran out. As her eyes met with Griggs', his hatred exploded in Kamek's mind, and because he too wanted her dead, the Magikoopa lost control. Before her flames reached the balcony, Griggs had pulled his gun, taken aim and fired through the curtain of heat, blasting Kamek out of his body and killing the Queen of the Koopas.


	15. Blood

Chapter 14: Blood

From the stands, the whole thing seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. One moment Bowselta was in chains; the next, she was engulfed in fire and was suddenly free, running and tumbling across the arena. Even Bowser, the Koopalings and the prisoners in the stands closest to the action couldn't follow the details of Bowselta's flight, but merely screamed and cheered as she sliced through humans with her sword, set fire to everything around her, and felled a tower of scaffolding. Then suddenly, she was airborne, blasting herself higher than she should have been able to as she arced through the sky towards the balcony – and Griggs.

And then it was over.

The burst of fire Bowselta shot at the balcony suddenly cut out, the echoing gunshot barely audible above the riotous crowd. The soldiers accompanying Griggs in the balcony screamed in agony as the short yet effective fireball washed over them, while Griggs dived down onto the Mystic Meteor for its magical protection. Above them, Bowselta smashed into the wooden and metal framework supporting the unfinished façade, which, already weakened by the fire damage below and the collapse of the scaffolding to the right side of the wall, promptly gave out.

Mortar, wood, metal and bricks cascaded down to the ground as the balcony and the surrounding wall collapsed, though exactly what was happening was obscured by a thick dust cloud. Miraculously, the jumbotron remained intact and functional, but the wall next to it was totally destroyed, revealing the stairwell that lead up to the balcony, most of which was also ripped apart and lay in the pile of rubble below. The crowd – humans and prisoners alike – stared in shock at the scene before them, their breaths bated with fear and anticipation as they strained too see through the cloud of debris hanging in the air.

High above the wreckage floated Kamek, still slightly dazed from being expelled by the black magic of Griggs' gun and disoriented from the chaotic experience of having a building fall through him. He soon got a grip on himself, however, and floated forward and downward a small bit, squinting at the destruction beneath him. His silvery form was obscured by the bright sunlight and no one really noticed him, but from his vantage point, he was the first to see through the settling dust. And he saw exactly what he was hoping for.

Thrown clear of the wreckage, Bowselta lay on her belly, obscuring the ragged hole the birdshot bullet had blown in her chest, though the sheer amount of black blood that was pooling around her, was enough to tell Kamek that Griggs' final shot hit home.

"NOOOO!" Bowser's sudden outburst filled the stadium as he too caught sight of the Koopa Queen; even though he was gagged by the harness, his words rang sharply and clearly through the dusty air. "NO! Bowselta! NO! Come on, get up! Come on _move_!" _She can't be dead_, he thought frantically. _She CAN'T – she just… just broke all her limbs in the fall. That's why they're lying at odd angles – that's where the blood's from. She's not dead. She can't be dead_. "Bowselta, please! Wake up! WAKE UP!"

While Bowser thrashed against his restraints, the Koopalings handled their grief less violently. Some stared in horror, unable to rip their eyes away from their mother's broken body and the inky blackness of her cursed blood; others turned away, squeezing their eyes against the tears. Some sobbed, some were silent; even Junior felt a pang of sadness over what he was witnessing. Up in a VIP Box, her arms and legs chained together, Kammy fell to her knees and wept, while the soldiers holding her restraints looked at each other uneasily, trying hard to remain unsympathetic towards the grieving old woman.

Peach also had tears on her face, not for Bowselta, but for Bowser and the Koopalings. The Koopa King was now a mix of fury and sorrow the likes of which Peach had never seen before; she was surprised he hadn't broken free of his restraints as Bowselta somehow managed to do as he thrashed and roared. Little wisps of smoke and fire escaped around the device rammed down Bowser's throat, and sparks danced at his fingertips (the metal bars across his palms served a dual purpose against his hammerspace and lightning abilities, but like the anti-dragonfire device, they couldn't quite handle the sheer power of his heartbreak).

The crowd at large was murmuring, some about Bowser, some about Bowselta, and others about Griggs and their own fates: what would happen now that the human leader was dead? The humans themselves were asking that question, as soldiers scurried through the stands and across the arena towards the rubble.

Kamek listened to their panic with vindictive content, though the emotion he felt most of all was pure, sadistic glee over Bowselta's fate. Her head lay on its side, the hair facing Bowser and the Koopalings, obscuring their view but giving Kamek a good look at her ruined nose and slackened jaws, both of which dribbled copper blood into the sea of black. Best of all was her one visible eye, which stared blankly out from under her drooping eyelid directly up into Kamek's comparatively livelier face. _She's dead_, he repeated to himself as a stupid grin crept across that translucent visage. _She's finally dead!_

Suddenly, a shot rang out through the stadium, the bullet barely missing Kamek as it shot straight up into the air. Everyone was shocked into silence as the rubble began to move, but when Griggs pulled himself from the wreckage, his arm clutching the Mystic Meteor to his chest, the prisoners began to shout in horror and anger. Bowser joined them: "Murderer! You bastard! I'll kill you for what you did to her! Ya hear me? I'LL KILL YOU!"

Griggs laughed as he stood up straight, waving off the soldiers who scrambled up the mound of debris to assist him, barking at them to get him a megaphone, for that was all he needed. Holstering his gun and shifting the Meteor under his arm, he surveyed the scene around him with a confidant smile, which was dutifully projected onto the jumbotron by the men operating the cameras. The soldiers that had been with him in the balcony were undoubtedly dead, since the only thing that had saved him from both Bowselta's fireball and the wall collapse was the power of the Meteor, but that was a small price to pay. He killed the monster that killed his brother with his own hands: that was more satisfying than a perfect execution any day. As a soldier ran up from the sidelines and threw him the megaphone, Griggs had already decided how he would turn the mishap into good publicity: his mother always said that had he not joined the military, he'd have made a great politician.

"Now, don't you see? Resistance is useless against us! All she accomplished with this stunt was the death of several of my men – catching a few prisoners in the crossfire, by the looks of it." Indeed, a few of the prisoners in the front rows looked a little singed here and there, but as Griggs picked his way to the edge of the destruction, he ignored the fact that they weren't complaining. Had Bowselta succeeded, they wouldn't have minded sustaining their injuries, and even now, they were too upset about the loss of the last glimmer of hope her mad dash had given them to feel any bitterness towards her. It was Griggs' hope that he could quash this sympathy before they left the arena.

"I'm sure she knew her efforts were in vain – and I'm willing to bet that she was as surprised as the rest of us when she got as close to assassinating me as she did. But in the end, all that matters is that she _failed_. As will any one else who continues to oppose us, because we have the power – we have _your_ power." As he said this, Griggs held up the Meteor.

"Power that you stole!" snarled Bowser. "Without it, you'd be no match for us!"

In the stands, the Koopas all started to shout in support of their king. Words like "coward" and "murderer" cut through the air, and Griggs struggled to keep his tempter in check.

"You are wrong! We won the war _before_ we took your Meteor: it is not your power but the strength of our _own_ world than burns within us and has given us this victory!"

"Bowselta would have finished you if you hadn't been clinging to our rock like a wet Fuzzipede! Your strength didn't save you _today_!" spat Bowser.

"Even if I had died today, it wouldn't change anything."

"Prove it!"

Griggs laughed cruelly. "Why on Earth would I prove _that_ – or better yet, how would I go about doing that? Should I _kill myself_? You're insane if you think I would-"

"Bowselta gave her life for this world!" Saying it aloud sent fresh pangs of sorrow through ever fiber of Bowser's body: it was truly the first time he had ever fully accepted that the love of his life was gone. But he had to be strong: simply letting the admiral walk all over the world that he and Bowselta should have conquered was not an option. He would fight to his last breath, even if it was with the feeblest weapon in his arsenal: his words.

"She was going to die anyway," snorted Griggs. "All she accomplished was making a big show of it."

"_You_ made a big show of it – or do _your_ cameras and all the people _you_ put in the stands not count?" countered Bowser, the corners of his mouth twitching into a faint smirk.

"Yeah, I know Poochie-and-Yoshi shows, and this really takes the cake," added Morton. He had been struggling to let his father have all the attention, but Griggs looked like he was about to snap and have them all shot at any second if the tongue-lashing kept up, and if this was the Koopaling's last chance to talk, he was going to talk! "This isn't a modern execution: it's more like old Roman entertainment, if I recall Earth history correctly, and-"

"It's barbaric, in other words!" cut-across Wendy.

"We ain't here as war criminals, we're just here 'cause you need some propeganda ta shut up da resistance," added Roy, who had come to his conclusion the moment he came-to, but like Morton, had kept his trap shut out of respect of his father.

"We're martyrs!" cried Iggy.

"We're Scape-goats!" said Lemmy. "Or at least Mom is..."

Junior snorted: he thought Griggs had it right blaming Bowselta for everything that had happened, but he wasn't going to argue in favour of the man who was about to put a bullet through his head.

Griggs didn't need Junior to speak for him, however, as he quickly refuted Lemmy's claim. "There's no denying that she set all this in motion. She came to Earth, she killed an innocent human – just as she's killed many of the soldiers of this world! She's evil, and she got what she deserved, as will the rest of you!"

"You deserve to die as well for everything you've done. You've killed more of us in these past few days than the Koopas have done in years! We may be evil, but so are you!" growled Bowser. "At least we were always honest about our desire to the rule the world, but you just hide behind that stolen rock and pretend like you're not as greedy a tyrant as us!"

"I am following orders on behalf of the rulers of my world!"

"Orders that just happen to make you the ruler of _my_ world?" said Bowser, his words dripping with disgust. "Give me the Meteor and let's have a fair fight! Or are you too scared to part with the rock, knowing that you'll never conquer this world without it!"

"Yeah! Because we'll fight you!"

"We'll kill you!"

"Fight!"

"Fight!"

The stadium once again echoed with the sound of angry prisoners. The guards looked at Griggs for guidance, and after a moment, he finally relented: if he had to step down to their level to finally crush the world, than so be it. "Fine! I'm not so foolhardy as to hand it over to _you_, but if this meaningless show of strength means so much to a brute such as yourself-" With a grunt, Griggs turned and lobbed the Mystic Meteor back to where Bowselta lay. He watched as it landed about a foot in front of her snout, sending little black droplets of blood flying every which way, before turning back to the living Koopas. "_She_ can have it: it's what she so dearly wanted, after all. Not that it's going to do her any good now."

"Better it does nothing for her than something for _you_," snarled Bowser, hoping it sounded better aloud than in his head. He was running out of clever things to say, and his voice was getting a little sore from yelling loudly enough for his voice to even come close to Griggs' megaphone (the gagging harness didn't help him, either). Bowser was just glad that the cameras included magical mics that amplified his voice (and Griggs' already amplified shouting) enough for the entire stadium to hear – he couldn't bellow _that _loudly even if he _didn't_ have cold metal spikes driven down his throat. "Now, release me and we'll do this like men!"

Griggs smiled. "I don't think so."

Immediately the crowd started to boo and jeer.

"I knew you were a coward!" crowed Bowser.

"I am not a coward," hissed Griggs. "But you are a fool. Just like her!"

As Bowser launched into an enraged tirade, joined by most of the Koopalings and a renewed wave of angry shouts from the crowd over Griggs' low blow, Larry turned his attention back to his mother. She lay quite a ways away, but he could still pick out her charm, which lay in the blood by her shoulder. He had always loved that charm, and had hoped he would inherit it one day, since none of the other Koopalings seemed to covet it – not even Ludwig. Now he wondered that even if by some miracle – the Stars, Rosalina, whoever – he and his siblings weren't killed that day, if he could walk up to her still bleeding body and take the charm as his own. Bowselta had plucked it from her mother's ashes, but that wasn't quite as macabre as the black blood that now surrounded the Koopa Queen, shimmering brightly in the sunlight. In fact, the blood was reflecting so much light it was beginning to hurt Larry's eyes, and it even seemed to be illuminating the Meteor off to the side.

Griggs now had his gun out and was vowing to shoot the Dragon-Koopas himself, but more and more of the Koopalings were becoming distracted by brightness around Bowselta's corpse. The admiral shot a murderous look over his shoulder but wouldn't let some shimmering liquid distract him and tried his best to ignore the stupid, distractible Dragon-Koopas as he continued his tirade: "And we will force you to understand, for that is the only way-"

But then, when Larry cried out "it's glowing!" and Bowser too looked away, Griggs lost it. He wouldn't have Bowselta Koopa overshadowing him any longer, and as soon as he got everyone's attention back on him, he didn't care if he looked like a gun-toting yahoo, he _would_ shoot the rest of her family dead, dead, dead!

"For Christ's sake, she's DEAD!" he screamed, whirling around and firing his gun directly at her head, but in a flash of light the bullet exploded before impact. Griggs barely had time to register the fact that Bowselta's head was raised from the ground and looking at him with one glowing blue eye before he was thrown backwards in a rush of air as the black pool erupted skyward. The torrent of blood left the ground, carrying Bowselta and the Meteor inside its swirling blackness, which soon swelled and burst, the droplets dissipating into thin air.

"Bowselta!" But even as he finished speaking her name, Bowser realized that the figure that had been floating inside was not his wife. Her facial features and body structure were remarkably similar to Bowselta's, but she had longer, deep red hair and wore a billowing black cape instead of the remains of the human restraints. The Paratroopa shell charm still floated around her neck on its leather strap, and the Meteor hovered above the palm of her left hand, both of them glowing the same brilliant blue as her eyes. As the cameras projected an image of her onto the jumbotron and to spectators all over the planet, the entire Mushroom World echoed with a single whispered word:

"Koopa."


	16. The End of an Era

**A/N: After re-watching **_**Princess Mononoke**_** by Hayao Miyazaki around the time I wrote this chapter, I realized that I had blatantly stolen both the visual of blackened, cursed scars consuming their bearers and the idea that bullets are evil and corrosive to life from the film. I'd also like to note that the exploding bullet scene in the last chapter was inspired by an episode of the anime **_**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai**_**.**

Chapter 15: The End of an Era

Before anyone could make another sound, Queen Koopa herself began to speak, her deep voice magically amplified without the aid of any spell or microphone. "Two hundred and three years ago, the first Earth humans came to this world. They made peace with the native humans and the Mushroom People, but soon after, declared war on the Turtles, Dinosaurs, Dragons and anything else that they felt was a threat. Countless lives were lost to the black magic of their weaponry, and it was years before I finally discovered the only hope we had against it: the Mystic Meteor, and the raw power it had brought to our world from the Center of the Universe millions of years ago. But even then, the war dragged on, and I soon realized that the only way to end the suffering would be with a compromise.

"In exchange for extending the magic of this world to the Earth humans, they would destroy the power they brought with them from theirs. We would become one people, and finally live in peace." Koopa then raised her right hand and cupped her claws around the charm, while at the same time bringing the Meteor closer to where it floated above her chest; the aura of blue light surrounding the two rocks seemed to dance around each other. "In order to divert some of its power to the humans, I had to use all of my energy to break the Meteor. My soul itself was ripped apart as I pulled this once small fragment of rock from its surroundings and willed the energy it released to bond with the humans' life forces."

Koopa lowered her hands and separated the pieces of the Meteor as she continued. "My body turned to dust, but I could not let my spirit dissipate and finally rest, because I knew that I would be needed again some day. As I died, I had seen into the hearts of the creatures of my world: natives and humans alike, and I understood that the deal I made with Toadstool would not be held forever. Some day, someone would cross the line: it was in the nature of humans, turtles and dragons. And so, I remained as an echo in the energy of the world, watching as my son carved out a life for himself, protected by the fact that no one knew he was of my blood. He didn't even tell his daughter about her heritage, but merely gave her the piece of the Meteor, which he had made into a charm. I watched as she grew, lived and died; I watched her son, her grandson, his daughter, her daughter and finally Bowselta, and her eight children.

"Even before she broke the cycle of only-children that had kept my bloodline exclusive all these years, I knew she would be the one to break the peace. Her bond with the charm was stronger than her ancestors' – it called to her when her mother died, and it eventually led her straight to the portal. I watched as she disappeared and returned, cursed with the black magic of the humans. It was only a matter of time before the humans followed, and so they have."

At this Koopa looked directly at Griggs, who was standing in shock as he tried to figure out what was going on. Surely it was a trick of the light, or a desperate magic show being conducted by some foolish magicians. Still, he couldn't help but be a bit taken aback as Koopa bared her teeth at him in a vindictive smile. "Admiral David Griggs, you murdered my daughter – and you would murder the rest of my children, their father, and countless other blameless souls."

"They are a danger to my world!" roared Griggs, feeling a little foolish about talking to an illusion.

"They pose no such threat," said Koopa. "I can see into your heart, and I can see that you are not fighting for your world. You are not even fighting out of love for your brother."

"How do you-"

"I told you: I can see your thoughts – your wants and needs – just as I can feel the energy of every other being in this world. The soul is the most powerful kind of magic: individually, it makes us who we are, but it is part of a greater power as well – power which is bounded by neither time nor space." Locked away behind bars, the Toad fortune tellers and Magikoopas nodded silently: they knew what she was speaking of, having seen the universal power every time they looked into their crystal balls. In the stands, many people also felt an understanding, having felt the interconnectedness of the world themselves. Kamek, who was now floating low above the Dragon-Koopas for a better view of Koopa knew better than all of them: like her, in death he was more in tune with the world than he had ever been as a living crystal-gazer.

Griggs, on the other hand, was not convinced. "And you expect me to believe all this nonsense?"

"No," said Koopa. "Your mind is far too clouded by hatred to be saved now, I'm afraid. The atrocities you have committed against the people of this world are proof of that."

"That's it, I've had enough of this!" Griggs raised his gun and fired two more shots at Koopa, both of which harmlessly burst into pieces before their target. "Dammit!" roared Griggs, but he had one last trick up his sleeve. If he couldn't destroy the illusion, he'd destroy its beneficiaries, and turned his gun on Bowser. But before he could fire his last birdshot bullet, Koopa raised her hand and the gun turned white-hot. Griggs yelped in pain and cradled his hand as his weapon fell to the ground and turned into a twisted, melted mass at his feet. In a rage, he looked over his shoulder at the nearest group of soldiers. "Don't just stand there, kill them!"

The soldiers jumped as Griggs shrieked at them, but as they took aim at the Dragon-Koopas, their guns also melted in their hands. "You'll find that this world is not as helpless against your black magic as it once was," said Koopa icily, causing Griggs to look back at her, his own face riddled with cold fury. "Like a body that grows resistant to disease, so too has the energy of this world: with enough power, your bullets can be reflected, and your weapons destroyed. But that is not enough: the presence of you and your weapons violates the treaty I made with Toadstool, and I will not let you use the power of my world as well as yours, especially not when you use that power to destroy life."

"Don't try to scare me!" spat Griggs. "You're just an illusion! There is no Queen Koopa – not anymore." He looked around at the people in the stands, and at his own guards, many of whom did look worried about what Koopa was saying. "This is just a trick! Koopa is dead, Bowselta is dead, and I-"

"And you are dead as well," said Koopa, extending her right arm to the side. Her staff obediently burst of the wreckage behind her and flew into her hand, its jewel also glowing blue. She then turned to the camera providing the feed for the jumbotron and the live broadcast. "People of Earth, I beseech you now to lay down your weapons and return to your home, for you will no longer be accepted here. The energy of this universe will now be stripped from your bodies, and regardless of your black magic, you _will_ be at the mercy of the people of the Mushroom World. Look into your hearts and realize what you are doing here is wrong, or you will end up like your comrades in this stadium, who would have murdered my helpless children, and forced millions of innocents to watch as the last glimmer of hope drowned in blackened blood. Realize now that it is _your_ hopes for dominion over this world that shall die today – what follows is up to you."

Koopa then swung her staff and every camera in the stadium exploded.

Griggs was starting to get scared, and ripped his eyes from the jumbotron (which went from showing Koopa's face to hissing snow) to Koopa herself. "What do you mean they will end up like us? What are you going to do?"

Koopa smiled sadly down at the human. "I am going to free the people you have imprisoned here, so that they may fight for this world. Regrettably, you and your men stand in the way of that-"

Griggs' face was livid. "You mean you're going to _kill_ us? And you call us murderers!" In the stands, the soldiers were frozen in place, some staring in silent horror as they realized they were about to die, others yelling in protest.

"I do not want to do this, but I must – there is no other way, and you humans must be stopped. I do not do this out of cold-blooded hatred, unlike _your_ planned execution – I do this out of love."

"BULLSHIT!" screamed Griggs, "OPEN FIRE!" The soldiers obeyed, including many in the stands, desperately emptying their machine guns in Koopa's direction. But it was of no use. An aura of light appeared around Koopa, deflecting the bullets as she crossed her arms (and her staff) across her chest, her eyes now glowing pure white. The charm was obscured behind her limbs and bowed head, but the Meteor was now a blinding blue, and a liquidy stream of its energy seemed to be flowing into the nearby jewel of Koopa's staff, which was growing ever brighter.

The Dragon-Koopas and the members of the audience squinted their eyes against the light, their need to watch overpowering the pain in their retinas. Finally, as the energy became almost too much to behold, Koopa flung open her arms and was consumed as the light expanded outwards. Griggs screamed as he too was engulfed by the wave, but unlike Koopa, who merely slid through the energy, the admiral's body disintegrated upon contact. The wave continued outwards, and while many of the humans turned to run, they could not escape and met the same, quick end as Griggs.

A few of the Koopalings strained against their harnesses, but their panicked fear was unnecessary as the warm energy washed over them. After a moment of nothing but pure whiteness surrounding them, the wave passed and the Dragon-Koopas found themselves not only fully intact, but freed of their restraints, which _had_ been obliterated by the energy. More than that, the sedatives had been completely neutralized and all their injuries healed – from the unseen damage the devices did to their throats, to the holes that had been driven through their noses, to Ludwig's newly materialized right leg.

As the dome of energy continued to expand, the prisoners in the audience rejoiced as they were also freed and healed, while many of the soldiers desperately clawed their way towards the exits. Most realized it was futile, however, and chose to die with dignity, standing stoically in place and making peace with God as the brightness burned them away.

Peach was one of the humans that chose to take things in stride, and after backing a few steps away from the edge of her cell, she merely closed her eyes as the energy reached her, but to her surprise, she wasn't killed like the human soldiers. Instead, she merely felt like a cold wind had blown through her body, catching her hair and her dress like a real gust and leaving her a little weak in the knees, but otherwise unharmed. She opened her eyes in shock and looked down at her body to convince herself that she really was still there, before running back to the mouth of her cell, where the bars had all disappeared.

The stadium was now completely surrounded by the shell of white energy, which had stopped expanding and now merely acted as a shield against the humans who were undoubtedly trying to break through and retake the stadium and its inhabitants. In the stands, prisoners were hugging and celebrating, and many were making their way down to the arena where the Dragon-Koopas were warily approaching Koopa as she floated above the center of the staging area.

"I have done all I can, the rest is up to you," said Koopa, looking down at Bowser.

"What do you mean?" said Bowser. As with her discussion with Griggs, Koopa extended her magic to the Koopa King so that his voice could be heard all throughout the stadium. "Aren't you going to, you know, lead us? Like you did all those years ago?"

Koopa shook her head. "The time of Queen Koopa has come to an end. What I have done here today has used up the last of my energy, and my soul will soon fade from this world altogether." As Bowser opened his mouth to retort, the ground began to rumble and three green pipes suddenly burst through the stadium floor behind Koopa, where the pile of rubble had been lying before she banished the humans and their destruction from the stadium. "I have redirected these Warps – they now lead to some previously disused pipes outside the Chai Kingdom Castle: unlike the rest of the Warp Pipes leading into Sarasaland, these have not been blocked-off. Once my spirit leaves this body, you will have fifteen minutes to get everyone here through to safety – at that point, the energy barrier will dissipate and the pipes will go dead."

"And then what?" demanded Bowser.

"That will be up to you," said Koopa. "I have done all I can to guide you."

"'_Guide us_'? No offence lady, but all you've told us is to run away."

Koopa smiled at Bowser's cheek. "I said much more than that – and I _know_ my wisdom has not fallen on deaf ears."

"You don't know our Daddy," scoffed Wendy: Bowser wasn't very good at picking-up on subtext.

"You don't know yourself," countered Koopa. "You did not hear me last time, either."

Wendy's eyes flashed at the jibe, but before she could react to Koopa's statement, Ludwig spoke up instead. "It vas _you_! Yours is zee face in zee Magic Mirror!"

"You recognized my voice," intoned Koopa.

Ludwig nodded.

Koopa smiled once more. "The Mirror is one of the few direct windows into the very essence of the universe itself. I could borrow it to communicate directly with the living – and with parallel dimensions as well, but that is another story entirely and I am running out of time…" The staff in Koopas hand had already gone dark by that point, and as the aura around her started to fade as well, Bowser started to feel a little panicky. Here he was, watching as his kids chatted with _the_ Queen Koopa – the veritable _God_ of the Koopas – who just delivered all of them from death, only to inform them that she was about to disappear forever and, by the sounds of it, leave _him_ to deal with the mess. Alone.

"Wait! You can't go yet! Please – tell us what we're supposed to do next!" he demanded.

"Fight them, of course."

"But _how?_"

"You'll find a way," said Koopa. "Do not doubt yourself, Bowser Koopa, for I leave this world in capable hands."

"But-"

"And do not worry: you will _not_ be alone."

Like Griggs, the Koopa King was a bit taken aback by Koopa's mind-reading ability. "I- what?"

Koopa smiled one last time as she raised her face skywards, closed her eyes and was gone. Instantly, the Meteor and the charm stopped glowing, and the illusion that had transformed Bowselta's figure into Koopa's disappeared. Bowser sprang forward as his wife's body fell through the air, catching her in his arms as the staff and Meteor fell straight to the ground on either side of him. Immediately, he was surrounded by the Koopalings, and while Ludwig and Lemmy immediately picked the priceless and powerful objects up from the dirt, their father only cared about Bowselta, and disconsolately sank to his knees as he looked into her blank face.

As with the rest of them, Koopa's magic had healed Bowselta's wounds, but the scar on her leg was now joined by various new black blotches, and the horrific, dark grey starburst-shaped Mark of the Dead strewn across her chest outlined exactly where Griggs' fatal birdshot had ripped her flesh apart. Not wanting to think about it, Bowser squeezed his eyes shut and let his head fall forward, burying his face in Bowselta's neck. Koopa had cleaned up all the blood, so it was only the smell of Bowselta's hair that greeted Bowser, and he tried to forget the crowd that was now gathering around the circle of Koopalings, and instead lose himself in memories – just for a moment.

"Bowser?" The whisper was so faint, Bowser would have sworn it wasn't real had he not heard Ludwig's sudden, sharp intake of breath to his immediate left – he had heard it too.

As the eldest Koopaling shushed the murmuring crowd around him, Bowser pulled his head back and stared into the Koopa Queen's face once more, desperate for any sign of life. "_Bowselta?_"

A grimace seemed to cross Bowselta's face, but it wasn't until she slowly slid her eyes open did Bowser let himself believe what was happening. "Bowser?" she said again with a bit more substance in her voice, frowning up at the tears welling in her husband's eyes.

"Bowselta!" he cried in joy, wrapping his arms tightly around her and burying his face into her neck once more as he sobbed disjointedly. "You're alive! I c-can't believe it… I thought… You're _alive_!"

For her part, Bowselta looked around over Bowser's shoulder, her face darkened by distress and confusion as her eyes flew between her eight children, who were joyously calling out to her. Beyond them, the crowd was buzzing with the news that Bowselta Koopa had risen from the grave, but the Dragon-Koopas themselves ignored it for the most part.

Bowser finally wrenched his face away and beamed tearfully a Bowselta, one of his hands tenderly caressing her cheek. "I thought I'd lost you…"

Bowselta _looked_ lost, and while she turned her eyes on Bowser's, they were still bleary. "Bowser, I…" She opened and closed her mouth wordlessly as she tried to digest everything that had just happened, unable to think clearly, much less speak. Suddenly, though all the sensations and voices that still echoed in Bowselta's mind, came one clear thought that snapped the Koopa Queen back to reality: "I… W- we have to get out of here!"

"What?" Bowser was startled by her sudden forcefulness as she gripped his shoulder with one of her hands and started pulling herself upright.

"Of course! The dome's gonna disappear any second now!" yelped Iggy, slapping a hand into his forehead and grabbing a fistful of his hair in distress.

"Dat's an exaggeration – we've got more den ten minutes," said Roy, raising his voice in order to be heard above the suddenly panicked crowd.

"But there's, like, ten thousand people here!" said Wendy, aghast.

"Actually, the seating capacity of Grass Land Stadium is only twenty-four-hundred fifty-"

"We still have to hurry!" insisted Iggy, cutting across Morton.

"We'll go-a-first!" The Koopalings looked around to find that Mario, Luigi and Peach had already made their way to the center of the arena from the VIP boxes.

Lemmy and Roy squeezed out of the way to give their parents a view of the plumbers as Luigi elaborated on his brother's statement. "If I'm there, it'll make our sudden appearance go over more smoothly, seeing as I'm the king and all…" Luigi blushed slightly, still not used to that fact himself, but there was no time to lose and he immediately followed Mario as the red plumber sprang over the crowd towards the pipes. It seemed to Bowser like they weren't jumping _quite_ as high as they used to, but as Bowselta squirmed out of his arms and tried to stand, he forgot all about his old foes. Peach hesitated, but seeing that Bowser was busy fussing over his revitalized wife, she decided to simply follow the Marios and head straight through the pipes – there'd be time to talk to her old friend in Sarasaland.

Bowselta was soon on her feet, but she was pale and weak, and leaned against her husband heavily. "Are you sure you don't want me to carry you?" he asked.

"I'm fine," grunted Bowselta, before smiling weakly at him. "But… does coming back to life always make you this nauseous?"

"Uhhh…"

"Your Alivenesses!" Kammy zoomed towards the Dragon-Koopas, having been delayed up in her cell by the lingering effects of the hammerspace-preventing drugs. (Koopa cleared them out of her system, but the old Magikoopa had been given such powerful suppressants, it took her old body an extra few moments to start functioning properly again.) Bowser was a bit afraid she'd crash headlong into him and Bowselta, but his Chief Advisor managed to break a couple inches short. "I was so worried!"

"So were we," grinned Bowser, the shock of seeing her alive giving way to sheer joy. "After that last message, we were sure you were a goner."

"Please, it takes more than a few measly humans to finish me off," huffed Kammy.

"Well, you came pretty darn close by the looks of it," frowned Bowser, eyeing Kammy's tattered clothing, naked arms, bare feet and hatless head. "Seriously, you look rattier than usual."

"You're one to talk, Your Almost-Executedness," chided Kammy good-naturedly.

"Now now, play nice you two," came a familiar voice from outside the ring of Koopalings, who once again bustled out of the way, this time to reveal Emerald and Crystal elbowing their way through the milling crowd. Emerald smirked, "arguing is no way to behave in front of all these people – what kind of leaders are you?"

"She started it," snorted Bowser.

"I did not!" said Kammy indignantly.

"Are they always like this?" asked Emerald, now looking at Bowselta, who had managed to stand up straight by that point.

"Pretty much," she nodded.

Emerald chuckled. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Anyway, that was some pretty impressive escape artistry there – and that mad dash? I'm impressed."

"To be honest the entire thing's a blur," winced Bowselta. "I don't really want to think about it just yet."

"Say no more," said Emerald, holding up her hands. "But before we get going, I think you'll want this back." Taking her cue, Crystal stepped out from her mother's shadow and shyly held out Bowselta's sword. "We caught some little green dude trying to make off with it."

"He spoke bad English," noted Crystal as Bowselta reached out and gripped the hilt of her sword.

"That would be Fawful," muttered the Koopa Queen as she looked the sword over and slipped it over her shoulder and into her own hammerspace. "I reneged on a deal I made with him a few years back concerning the sword, my freedom, and the charm…" Bowselta's look was far away once more as her fingers reached for the charm. If she had known what she had been wearing around her neck, she wouldn't have even _pretended_ like she would give it to the likes of Fawful… "It's a long story," she finally stated, pulling her mind back to the present.

"And we definitely don't have time for it now," said Wendy, eyeing the energy dome mistrustfully.

Bowser grunted in agreement. "We should probably get going – most of the other guys are already through the pipes." Indeed, as the Dragon-Koopas stood talking, the other liberated prisoners had been filing through the pipes in a somewhat organized fashion – mostly thanks to a few Koopas and Toads who had taken it upon themselves to conduct crowd control.

"You're probably right," nodded Bowselta, glad she finally was feeling well enough to walk.

"Wait!" Kamek had been watching the exchange invisibly, debating whether or not he should cut in. Finally, as the "now or never" moment cropped up, he made his decision and materialized behind the group.

"Kamek!" a few of the Dragon-Koopas exclaimed in surprise, but Kammy's utterance was also tinged with anger and she immediately turned on her undead brother.

"What are you doing here? Did you come to watch the show with your friend Griggs?"

"It's a good thing I did – because if I hadn't acted, they'd all probably be dead," said Kamek defensively, holding his hand out over the Koopalings and their parents.

"_You_ were the one who handed them over to the humans in the first place!"

"I didn't have a choice, and I did everything I could to stop him from killing them."

"Yeah right!"

"Wait a minute," interrupted Morton. "Griggs wasn't acting normally when Mom broke free. In fact, I'm pretty sure I heard him tell the guards to kill her, then us, then her again, and _then_ he told them to hold fire altogether – right when she leapt into the air."

"Yeah, I rememba dat too – dat was strange," agreed Roy

"Yeah," nodded Junior.

"That was _me_," said Kamek, turning from the Koopalings to his sister. "I possessed him in order to buy everyone some time."

Kammy was still skeptical. "Why would you do that?"

"So Bowselta could kill Griggs – Kammy, he would've killed you the moment the Dragon-Koopas were dead and there was no point blackmailing me anymore-"

"It's always about you, isn't it?"

"Um guys, we don't have time for this," said Bowser, looking over his shoulder at the thinning crowd around the pipes. "How about you come with us, Kamek, and you two can continue your argument in Sarasaland, y'know, where we _aren't_ surrounded by people who want to kill us."

Kamek shook his translucent head. "I'll be more useful down here. I can keep spying on the humans, and I'll spread the word about what happened here to the rest of the ghost community. Until now, we couldn't do anything against the humans without suffering from incredible pain, but I'm sure that whatever Koopa did to their energies will make it easier for us to possess them. At the very least, hopefully the other ghosts won't be too scared to even go near them anymore. And even if I'm wrong, you can still use all the help you can get – Boos can manage airships, after all."

"I still can't believe that you want to help us – you hate Bowselta," growled Kammy.

Kamek nodded and looked away from the group. "It's true: for years I wanted nothing more than to see her dead… And so I have!" He turned back and smiled toothily at the confounded and resurrected Koopa Queen. "Now we're even."

Bowselta blinked. "Um, _okay_…But are y-"

"Your Highnesses! We have to go!" bellowed a Koopa Troopa from atop one of the pipes. The last of the crowd was nearly through the portals and the brightness of the energy above them was starting to flicker.

"Coming!" roared Bowser, before turning back to Kamek. "You better not be messing with us."

Kamek smiled smugly and shook his head. "I've always wanted what you wanted: to see the Koopas rule the world – helping the _humans_ take it over would be counterproductive, now wouldn't it? And I wouldn't dream of harming the descendents of Queen Koopa…" _and Morton_ added Kamek to himself as his eyes swept over the Koopalings before looking back at Bowser and Bowselta, who was now standing fully on her own. She still looked sick, and Kamek could barely believe _she_ of all people was Koopa's flesh and blood, reincarnated – but there was no way around it: he'd work with her, Bowser, Kammy and the Koopalings until the day he ceased to exist. Once more, he had no choice, but this time, he wasn't overly upset about it. "Anyway, I probably can't leave until the barrier dissipates – so don't linger on my account."

"Hah, like that would ever happen," snorted Bowser, turning and leading his family over to the pipes, where the Koopa anxiously waited for them. He was old, with piercing blue eyes and a few grey hairs sticking out of his head, but it was only when he spoke that they recognized him: it was Spiky Tom, _sans_ his spiky Koopatrol armor.

"I was getting worried," he said as the Koopalings hopped through.

"Psh, you worry too much – we have plenty of time," scoffed Bowser as he helped host Bowselta up to the pipe.

"Not really," she muttered, looking up at the flickering energy warily.

Bowser scowled but didn't contradict her as they slid down the pipe together. Tom scowled at Kammy, who was lingering above the pipe with Kamek, but she waved him ahead of her. "I'll be right along."

"You better – King Bowser will have my hide if I let you get cut-off," grumbled Tom as he left the Magikoopa siblings alone.

"I really am sorry for what I had to do before-"

"Save it, Kamek," she said. "If you can bury your hatchet with Bowselta, I can forgive you for what you did – especially seeing as how everyone survived."

Kamek smiled, relief washing through his vaporous body. "Kammy I-"

"But don't expect us to be all buddy-buddy again – I don't hate you, but I'm still mad at you," Kammy waggled her finger at Kamek.

"I love you to," said Kamek, making a face as his sister dived into the pipe. Above him the brilliant white dome still held, and he looked around the stadium, hardly believing that it was filled with humans, prisoners and destruction mere minutes beforehand. And now it was completely empty save for himself… and Fawful.

"Grrrr… Fink Rat Yellow… who is she to be having the stopping of me? I should be in possession of the sword of black-markingness…" Fawful muttered angrily to himself as he limped towards the pipes from the corner of the stadium. "She is pretentious like a bird who's ugly feathers are being the brightest of his flock that is filled with more ugly birds who do not realize they are having _no_ beauty… Just like Fawful is having no sword – because of ugly Yellow! Grrr, I HAVE FURY!"

"Hello Fawful," said Kamek demurely as the Bean clambered onto the nearest Warp Pipe.

Fawful looked like he had half a mind to verbally abuse Kamek as well, just for the heck of it, but the energy dome flashed completely out of existence for a split-second just as he was opening his mouth, causing him to yelp and warp away to safety instead. The ghostly wizard laughed – and really, he had every reason to be cheerful. His sister was safe, Bowser and the Koopalings were alive… Sure, his old nemesis was now the living embodiment of the Koopan God, but Griggs had been ten times worse than she ever was and he was _gone_. Even as the white light of the energy barrier above Kamek finally died, allowing a whole squadron of warhead-laden helicopters to come whirling into the abandoned stadium, things were looking much brighter for the Mushroom World.


	17. The Far Side of the Border

**A/N: The next couple chapters here are a bit like **_**The Queen of the Koopas**_** in that they're long and full of exposition (and meandering conversations), which I hope isn't too much of a drag: it **_**does**_** pick up the pace eventually.**

Chapter 16: The Far Side of the Border

Bowselta lay on her belly in the dark. Chai Castle was not designed with Dragon-Koopa-sized beings in mind, so even though she was lying diagonally across the largest mattress in the guest wing, her lower legs still hung in space, and between them, the tip of her tail lay flopped over the edge of the mattress. Bowselta didn't care, though, as she mulled over the past few hours in silence. The nausea of coming back to life had worn off shortly after they got to Chai Castle, and once Bowselta escaped the mobs of freed soldiers, her memories of what happened in the stadium started coming back to her in clarity.

She remembered waking up and being raised into the stadium. She couldn't remember Griggs' monologue, but that was because she didn't pay attention to it in the first place – instead, she planned a last, desperate attempt to kill him and worked to free herself. She remembered unlocking the bands around her wrists, and slicing her knife through her own flesh so that she could pull the anti-dragonfire device out of her throat. She remembered cutting through the chains with her sword, protected by a ball of flame she had spun around her. She remembered running; she remembered tumbling and staggering as more bullets ripped through her flesh. She remembered killing and destruction and flying through the air… And she remembered what came next. She wish she didn't. That's why she lay alone in the dark: she couldn't face everyone – she just barely kept her composure after she woke up in Bowser's arms, fighting to understand what was going on as her mind struggled and failed to understand what had already happened.

One thing had rung clear through her foggy consciousness, however: the fact that they had to leave before Koopa's energy barrier dissipated. Bowselta made sure to communicate that final order of Queen Koopa, and struggled to her feet. She remembered talking with the people around her – Bowser, the Koopalings, the Lakipas, Kammy and even the Mario Bros. She was reunited with her sword, and Kamek even seemed to make piece with her, but she wasn't sure – he could have been lying again for all she knew. Then they went through the Warp Pipes and ended up in Chai. It was pretty chaotic there too, but Mario, Luigi and Peach, in leading the way, had managed to get the Sarasalanders to allow the Koopa Troop to flood their castle grounds – including the Dragon-Koopas, although Pionpi guards floated about uneasily, watching their every move.

Of course, everyone else was watching them too – or more specifically, watching Bowselta: the descendent of Queen Koopa – their god, their savior. But they were wrong; she wasn't a god, or a messiah, or anything like that. Queen Koopa had saved everyone in the stadium, not her: she wasn't Queen Koopa – she was just the Queen of the Koopas, and that wasn't the same. She was just Bowselta Koopa, and she couldn't handle what was happening anymore. She could hold her head high and march forward, but under the façade, she was falling apart again. Now that they were out of immediate danger, the lucidity that had allowed her to order their retreat and converse with those around her was being replaced once more by the shock of what had happened. The feeling of sickness had never left her body, and now anxiety and panic were setting in too: the stares, the whispers, the cheers of the people around her… She needed to get away.

Fortunately, that wasn't a problem. A hissed demand to Bowser, and they made a beeline for the castle, where they ran into Peach, Daisy, King Toadstool and the Mario Bros. Daisy demanded that the Dragon-Koopas help her and her guards to get the crowds organized, but Bowser insisted they be let through, and recognizing the strain on the sociophobic Koopa Queen's face, Peach helped him convince Daisy to let some guards escort them to the guest wing of the castle. As they neared their destination, Bowselta summoned the last of the clear thoughts in her head. "Bowser, we need to act quickly. We need to attack the humans before they can regroup."

"Of course," nodded Bowser. "I say we take back Dark Land first."

"You go to Dark Land: have Mario take back the Mushroom Kingdom – he has experience with that." Normally, this last part would have been delivered with a bitter smirk or a twang or irony, but right now, it was all Bowselta could do to croak out any words at all.

"But, do you think that's possible – to attack on both fronts? We didn't liberate _that_ many soldiers – or did Koopa… She did something to tip the scales, right?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Lots of stuff…I- I don't know, I mean, I do know… But… I…" They had reached the rooms, and Bowselta opened one of them and stepped into the doorway. "I'm sorry – I feel really sick, I can't… _Think_, anymore."

"Of course, don't worry: I know what it's like to… well, die and come back to life. It's horrible," Bowser took a step towards the open room. "We can just relax for a bit and-"

"There's no time," said Bowselta, defensively barring her husband entrance to the room with the door, closing it more than halfway, with only her head and neck protruding back out into the hall. "You don't understand – it's not just my body. I… A lot happened, and I don't understand it all yet… And, until I do, I should not be giving orders. But I don't know how long I'll be this way, and you can't wait for me, or it'll be too late: we need to attack _now_."

"Um, okay. But don't we need some sort of plan?"

"Yes, of course. I'm sure you'll think of something."

"But you're the one who always comes up with the plans!" said Bowser, catching onto what Bowselta was planning.

"I'm sorry – I can't… I don't trust my judgement right now. Perhaps…" Bowselta closed her eyes, her mind was swirling; she had a pounding headache and while her stomach was completely empty, she felt nauseous. Still, she managed to dredge up a couple things Koopa had told her. "The Magikoopas – they can fight the humans now. Bullets… need less energy to be deflected. Spells will do, and maybe armor."

"Magically enforced armor?" asked Kammy. "And what spells, exactly?"

"I don't know," said Bowselta, shaking her head. "It's not specific, it's just a feeling, but I think… Yes, attack northern Dark Land. The Magikoopas… and there's technology in the fortress."

"Zee new airships!" gasped Ludwig, suddenly remembering.

"They have forcefields like the _Seven_," continued Iggy. "We could use them to fight off the human planes!"

Bowser grinned at Bowselta. "And you thought you couldn't help make the plans this time!"

"They would have remembered on their own," said Bowselta with a small smile, before wincing and holding the hand that wasn't gripping the door's handle to her forehead. "But please… I really feel terrible. I don't know anything more besides 'go North' – and send Mario south, and… But he needs more powerups, I think- or, or something."

"Wait, what?" Bowser furrowed his brows. "But I thought Koopa said she was stripping the humans of their power."

"She did. But not all of them…" Bowselta also frowned, but it was no use: she couldn't explain anymore. "I'm sorry."

"Vait!" yelled Ludwig as Bowselta started to retreat into the room.

"Ludwig, I can't-" But Bowselta stopped short when Ludwig merely held out the Mystic Meteor.

"It's clear you need rest, but I sink you should keep zis vit you."

"Oh, and this too," said Lemmy, jumping forward next to Ludwig and offering Koopa's staff to his mother.

Bowselta smiled faintly again and took the Meteor from Ludwig, letting its warmth fill her weary fingers. She then clasped it to her belly scales, just below where the other piece of the Meteor, disguised as a Paratroopa shell charm, rested against her chest. "Thank you," she said to both of them as she took the staff as well. "I wish I could help you all more, but… I need to understand. What happened to me – what happened to the world, and Koopa, and…" Bowselta sighed and closed her eyes. She felt like a failure as she let the door swing closed, but it was caught before she was completely cut off.

"It's okay, Bowselta," said Bowser, having stepped forward at the last minute, pushing Ludwig and Lemmy out of the way to have the last word with his wife. "Howabout this? I'll come back and tell you the plan before we actually go ahead and do anything, and then if we've made complete idiots of ourselves, you can tell us. I mean, even if you can't come up with your own plans, surely you could still pick apart ours, yes?"

Bowselta's face was hidden in the shadows of the room as she paused behind the door. "Sounds like a plan," she said after a moment, before turning and walking deeper inside.

Bowser figured that was his cue to close the door and finally giver her some piece, but there was one last thing he had to say. "And… Bowselta?"

"…What?"

"I love you," said Bowser. "I know you don't like it when I make big scenes about this in public, and believe me, I wish there wasn't a huge crowd of gawkers right now too…" Bowser cast his reproachful eyes about the people around him: the Koopalings, the Lakipas, Kammy and some random Pionpi guards. "… But I'd rather make a cheesy fool of myself than not say anything right now, and I hope you don't mind… I… I really thought I had lost you forever, today, Bowselta. And that was the worst feeling…" Bowser trailed off awkwardly, wondering why he had kept talking when simply leaving it as 'I love you' would have been perfectly fine. It seemed he always tripped over his tongue like this when he wanted to say something really meaningful to Bowselta, which was annoying and embarrassing, but inside the room, lying on the bed, curled around the Mystic Meteor, Bowselta was smiling, because it was also endearing.

"I love you too."

-x-

Bowser finally let the door close, resting his forehead against it for a moment. He was also tired and stressed over everything that had happened, but he couldn't let it get to him. Whenever he had died and come back to life because of Mario, Bowselta hadn't missed a beat. She'd be there, fishing his bones out of the lava, and while he struggled to get reacquainted with life after his flesh had been returned to those bones, she'd be the one re-deploying the forces for a second strike. He turned to the group of Pionpis. "I want this room guarded against all intruders – no one gets in unless Bowselta says so."

"I can watch the room."

Bowser frowned as Spiky Tom appeared at his elbow. "Huh? Where did you come from?"

"I was standing over with Roy and Morton the entire time."

"Oh, I didn't see you…" Bowser wondered how he could have missed his trusty Chief of Homeland Security… Perhaps it was because he was wearing a different helmet. "Hey, wait a minute, didn't you not have a helmet before?"

"I didn't: the humans took my armour, but I had an old helmet in my hammerspace, and I pulled it out after we came through the Warp Pipe," explained Tom.

"Oh. Why do you have extra helmets in your shell?"

Tom shrugged. "Just in case. But I only had this one."

"I see…"

"I don't think Mom's the only one who needs to get her head on straight," whispered Wendy to Iggy.

"I heard that," growled Bowser, before turning back to Tom. Wendy was right, but he wasn't going to let her know that, and he was hoping this pointless repertoire with Tom would give him an idea of what to do next, since he certainly couldn't think of anything on his own. "Anyway, why aren't you outside organizing the troops?"

"Army Hammer Bro. and Johnson said they'd handle it; they have those Hammer Bro. twins helping them, too, and the Sarasaland guards – I'm sure it's under control."

"Oh, okay. But I guess I should probably go out and, y'know make sure it _is_ under control…" Bowser looked around at the Koopalings.

"I'll go wid ya," said Roy.

"Wait, don't we need to start coming up with a plan, like Mom said?" said Larry, wincing as everyone turned to look at him.

"Oh, that's right!" said Bowser. "I mean, uh, we should all take a little time to cool off."

"No duh," said Wendy.

Bowser growled. "Plus, we should get Peach and the others to be part of the plan-making, and I bet they want time to get their people under control too."

"And I'm hungry: we shouldn't scheme on empty stomachs," added Morton. "Brains work better when they're well-feed, after all: food energy is necessary for thought as well as moving around – Iggy can back me up on this: it has to do with the cells breaking down sugar, and-"

"Okay, okay, we get the point," said Junior.

"You had me at food," moaned Lemmy.

"Okay, so our _plan_ is to go get food, and then Roy and I will go and check on the troops, and get Peach and the others, and then we can all decide what to do about the humans." Bowser pounded a fist into his other hand to emphasize that last part.

"What if Peach and the Mario Bros. want to eat too?" asked Iggy.

"Then too bad for them."

"Or we could bribe them with food," said Lemmy.

"Or we could ask for zee planning session to be catered," said Ludwig.

"I can't wait that long!" protested Morton. "Can we _please_ start going to the kitchens now?"

"Fine, fine," said Bowser starting down the hallway. However, he hadn't led the group very far when he paused and looked back at the Pionpis, who hadn't moved from in front of Bowselta's room.

"Um, which way _is_ the kitchens?"

-xxx-

It turned out Bowser had been going in the right direction after all, but since they had only been told to bring the Koopas to the guest quarters, the Pionpis felt obligated to not point them in the direction of the kitchens. They knew the castle grounds were filled with underfed prisoners of war, and figured Queen Daisy already had an idea of what to do about feeding them – including the Dragon-Koopas. So instead of letting them find their own way to the kitchens, and possibly eat more than their fare share of food and make things difficult for Daisy and their Sarasaland brothers, who also needed to eat, they led the Koopas in a large circle around the castle, and deposited them back outside.

Bowser was furious when he suddenly found himself faced with a door to the outside, and not to the kitchens, but the hallway behind the Dragon-Koopas (and Kammy) was blockaded by an entire squadron of Pionpi and even a few Nyololins. Bowser and the Koopalings could have easily blasted through, but the Koopa King knew that picking a fight with the castle guards was probably a bad idea: as much as he was loathed to admit it, he needed to work _with_ the Sarasalanders. Plus, he still didn't know where the kitchens were, so breaking back into the castle wouldn't do him much good anyway. So instead, he led his brood, Kammy and the Lakipas across the courtyard in search of Peach: she helped him get Bowselta a room, and he figured she was his ticket to the kitchen, too.

It turned out that Spiky Tom was right about the situation being under control. The freed prisoners were organized into smaller groups all around the courtyard, and while some Toads were still visibly distressed, the Koopan groups were all quite composed. Bowser found Peach in no time, since she was in the same place the Dragon-Koopas had left her, as were Mario and King Toadstool, though Luigi and Daisy were absent.

"Oh, good – Bowser. We were just talking about you: we need to come up with a plan against the invaders. Is Bowselta okay?"

"She's fine," said Bowser. "She's resting, so we're on our own as far as plan-making goes, but she _did_ say that we should attack as soon as possible, and that going to northern Dark Land would be out best bet."

"I want to-a-free the _Mushroom Kingdom_ first-a," said Mario.

"Bowselta said we should free both at the same time."

"We don't have enough people for that!" said Peach, shaking her head: she was worried the Koopas would be rash about the situation.

"Apparently Queen Koopa's leveled the playing field, or something: I'm not sure what she's done, exactly."

"She's-a-lessened out power, that's-a-what!" said Mario angrily.

"Huh?"

"Mario noticed that he can't jump as high as he used too – so has Luigi, and Daisy and I have noticed it's harder to use magic," said Peach.

"That's because you're descended from Earth humans," said Emerald. "If I'm not mistaken, Koopa said she stripped the energy of this world from the invading humans – i.e. the humans not native to this world, which would include your ancestors."

"But we still have_ some_-a-powers," said Mario.

"I'd wager you have more than just some powers, since most of your ancestors _were_ native to this world: only a couple hundred men came through from Earth two hundred years ago, after all."

Peach nodded. "That's true, and it makes sense… Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but who are you, exactly?"

"Emerald Lakipa – I'm an old friend of Bowselta's. 'Been living up north for the past thirty years, which is why no one knows I exist – that's my daughter, Crystal." Crystal blushed and tried to scoot behind the nearest Koopaling as her mom introduced her.

"Pleased to meet you," smiled Peach. She had never expected to meet another Dragon-Koopa. Mario warily sized the newcomers up.

"Um, sorry to interrupt. But I'm _really_ hungry," said Morton.

Bowser nodded. "Yeah, we want some food. We haven't eaten in… Actually, what day _is_ it?"

"Tuesday," said King Toadstool.

"I meant what's the actual specific date," growled Bowser.

"We left Westpole over two weeks ago," said Emerald, who had been told the date by the humans when she was in captivity. "So not including the little things we ate in the mountains…"

"Like that blue moss the night before we were captured," said Morton.

"Mum and I were given a little food, you mean they starved you guys?" gasped Crystal.

"'Starved'? How long _vere_ vee in captivity?" gasped Ludwig.

"Two days," said Peach. "Not including this morning."

"Okay," said Bowser impatiently. "The point is, except for the Lakipas-"

"They fed me too."

"Okay, except for the Lakipas _and Kammy_, we haven't eaten anything decent in a _long_ time, and we demand that this be fixed," growled Bowser, stomping his foot for emphasis.

"We can't think on empty stomachs!" added Morton.

"And if we give it a little time, I'm sure we'll start getting a better idea of what's actually happened across the planet. Everyone saw Queen Koopa's message, and I'm willing to bet the Koopa Kingdom, at the very least, will respond," said Kammy. "The humans couldn't make me surrender what was in my hammerspace – including my crystal ball, so as soon as any other crystal-gazing Magikoopas free themselves, I will know."

"How do you-a-know that will happen – that-a-Magikoopas will free themselves?" demanded Mario.

"Bowselta says that Magikoopas can deflect bullets with their spells now, thanks to Queen Koopa," said Bowser.

"We used to need extremely powerful forcefields to negate their alien energy, but by the sounds of it, our energy has been given a boost," said Iggy.

"Or it's at least grown a bit more resistant over zee years, and zat immunity's been accelerated a little by Qveen Koopa's efforts today, depending on how you interpret vat she said," added Ludwig.

Peach shook her head. "It's hard to believe so little time has passed since what happened back there. It was a real miracle…"

"One that the people of this world will rally about," said Emerald, her eyes gleaming. "An entire planet united around one cause – we'll beat back those invaders in no time! It will be _awesoooome_!"

"I like this Dragon-Koopa," whispered King Toadstool to his daughter.

Bowser snorted. "Look, is it _really_ so hard to let us go and get some freaking food?"

-xxx-

Eventually, Bowser, the Koopalings, Kammy and the Lakipas were shown to the kitchen where, despite Emerald's best efforts to warn them, many of the Koopalings ended up overfilling their starvation-shrunken stomachs and puking their meals right back up again. After sheepishly apologizing to the Sarasalandish chefs for the mess (he _did_ need to play nice with the Koopa Kingdom's only powerful ally in this war, after all), Bowser headed off to see the troops with Roy and Morton. It had been decided that the rulers of the four countries (including King Peasley) would meet at 2:00 that afternoon to assess what intel had come in and make a plan of attack, giving the Koopas just under an hour to decompress and/or put themselves to use.

Larry, Lemmy and Ludwig ended up tagging along with Emerald and Crystal to the medical wing. The elder Lakipa's medicine bag had been taken from her by the humans when they were captured, and while she had an extra yellow bag, she only carried a few supplies in her hammerspace and wanted to get more. She was also interested in seeing the sorts of foreign remedies they had in Chai, and pestered the Pionpi assisting her with endless questions about the local flora and fauna used in the concoctions, almost all of which were completely new to her. None of the Koopalings had actually been to Sarasaland either: when Bowselta sent the Mario Bros. through the portal to Earth and the Koopas took over their two neighbouring countries, they never bothered visiting Princess Daisy's domain. Unlike Peach, who welcomed Bowser's family into her home during the Dark Land fire season (albeit sadly), it was clear that they would not be well-received north of the old border, and so they remained in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Bowser had been to the Chai castle once, during the peace talks over the Koopalinga mountains, but that had been over twenty years previously, and he didn't remember much about the place, but unlike the Koopalings, he wasn't interested in exploring. Instead, he and Roy spent all their time outside with the troops, making sure they were all ready to march into battle as soon as a plan was drafted, which they were. Being spoken too, freed and healed by Queen Koopa gave them more hope and confidence than the Star Spirits had ever bestowed upon their disciples in the Mushroom Kingdom, and knowing they would be fighting for her "children" gave them even more spirit. Roy soon got annoyed by being fawned over as a descendent of Koopa, but the higher ranks who knew him personally got over it quickly, which made it bearable. Bowser was also a bit peeved that he was only getting marginal respect for marrying into the family, but it wasn't like people _didn't_ care that he was the Koopa King anymore, so it could be worse.

Unlike Roy and Bowser, Morton's main reaction was that of fascination, although he soon grew board of both the awe and of milling about the courtyard itself, and went inside to explore a little, eventually meeting up with Iggy and Wendy. "Heyyyy," he said. "Whatcha guys up to? Find any secret passages? Secret weapons? Gift shops?"

"No, nothing like that," said Iggy. "I don't suppose _you_ found anything? Like a laboratory, perhaps?"

"Nope, sorry Iggs."

"Ah well, they wouldn't have a coat in my size anyway," sighed Iggy. While the humans had returned his labcoat, they had ripped off the sleeves – although unlike Kammy, it hadn't been done to keep him from pulling stuff from his hammerspace, but to make it possible for their restraints to fasten directly around his arms.

"You should have carried around an extra labcoat in your hammerspace, like Tom's helmet, and I always keep an extra cap on my person. I'm just glad they put head harness thing over _this_ cap since it _is_ my backup: I lost the other one when the _Seven_ crashed."

"A coat's a lot bigger than a hat," said Iggy. "And I don't see why they couldn't have just fastened the shackles over my coat: they made allowances for everyone's bracers, your hat, her bangles-" Iggy nodded his head in Wendy's direction, "-Roy's helmet, and-"

"And your goggles, which could have interfered with the harness, since it also had to hook around the horns. Maybe they wanted to make sure that since your head was a little uncertain, your arms were extra secure."

"But a little fabric wouldn't have done anything – and they let Wendy keep her _boots_ on! That's _way_ more insecure than my labcoat could have ever made me!"

"Hey! I'll have you know I tried to wiggle my legs out and I couldn't – those shackles were on really tight: it was so uncomfortable, and look! They totally wrecked my boots – see those wrinkles, and that flaking paint?"

"You already showed me," said Iggy flatly.

"I was showing _Morton_," snarled Wendy. "Besides, like I said before, you shouldn't be so mad about your coat because it looks _way_ cooler with the sleeves ripped off."

"I don't wanna look like a gritty biker, or whatever, though."

Wendy snorted. "Oh, you're _faaar_ from that, Iggy: I said you look 'cooler', not 'cool'. No way."

"How long until two o'clock?" said Iggy, changing the subject. He was still glaring at Wendy, but her words made him wonder: perhaps Crystal would like the ripped-off sleeve look too. She liked Roy's toughness, after all, so perhaps the "new" coat could help get Iggy back in the running for her affection. (Of course, Crystal didn't actually like toughness in and of itself: she liked Roy _despite_ his gruff demeanor, for reasons she couldn't quite explain, not even to herself – but obviously, Iggy didn't know that.)

"Um, the last time I passed a clock it was one-thirty, and that was about ten minutes ago, I think, or maybe fifteen minutes – I can't remember, I was too caught up with exploring." Morton grinned. "This castle is so neat: most of it's underground, you know, so outside it looks like there's a bunch of smaller complexes around the big central structure, but it's all one thing! They just have it made this way because they like nature – they've even got a crazy garden out back, and-"

"So we've got fifteen minutes left?" said Iggy.

"Yeah, and as I was saying, in the garden they have-"

"Maybe we should go take a look at the garden ourselves," suggested Iggy, but Wendy wasn't in the mood, and insisted they start heading to the conference room – with the excuse that they could get lost along the way. Iggy figured she was just sick of him, but he was used to that attitude and agreed to start heading upstairs. They met Junior just outside the room. He said he had been looking around for any Sarasaland secrets that could give the Koopa Kingdom a leg up when things went back to normal and they become enemies again.

"You really think things'll become normal again?" drawled Wendy as she sat down in one of the Dragon-Koopa-sized chairs in the conference room.

"Why? Do _you_ think we're gonna lose to the humans, or something?" asked Junior.

Wendy shrugged. "Well, I _hope_ we don't, but who knows?"

"We have Queen Koopa on our side, though," said Iggy.

"No we don't: she's gone. Remember what she said? That her energy was used up and that she was fading from the world? Of course, we have the Mystic Meteor, and the fact that Koopa appeared and delivered everyone from death has totally psyched the Koopa Troop for war," said Morton. "You should hear what they're saying about Mom-"

"Oh, yeah. _Mom_," said Junior rolling his yes. "Thanks for reminding me: who needs _The _Queen Koopa when we have the _current_ Queen Koopa? After all, she's been _so_ useful: yeah, attack the north – great plan, Mom. Sure you can go hide in a dark room all day – we'll be okay."

Wendy smirked bitterly, but Iggy and Morton weren't amused. "Y'know, she _did_ sacrifice herself in an attempt to save us all from being summarily executed," said Iggy.

"By the people she led to this world," snorted Junior.

"Oh not this again," said Morton. "You better not shine that lovely attitude of yours down on the troops: they think Mom's like the second coming."

"I thought she _is_, y'know, the second coming?" said Iggy.

"Psh, no she's not," said Wendy. "She just happens to be descended from Koopa – she's no more special than all of us. She just happened to die first."

"I think there's more to that, actually. Emerald told me the most complete Story of Koopa back when we had just decided to track down the Mystic Meteor, and she said that it was foretold that Koopa's descendent would reconnect the two pieces of the Meteor with blood – _their_ blood, as they sacrificed themselves for-"

"Okay, okay!" interrupted Wendy. "So Mom happened to die _in a puddle of blood_ first. My point is-"

"Wait, Emerald knew Koopa had descendents?" said Iggy.

"Well, obviously she had descendents!" Iggy, Wendy, Junior and Morton looked up as Emerald walked into the conference room, followed by Crystal, Ludwig, Lemmy and Larry.

"How is it obvious?" said Junior, cocking his eyebrow and mentally noting that somehow, Emerald and Crystal had become unofficial advisers to the Koopan throne. Two extra chairs had been provided for them and everything.

Emerald shook her head in disbelief. "Honestly, you Southerners… Well, you at least know she had a mate, and that she was avenging him in retrieving the Meteor, right?"

"As vell as saving all zee other 'turtle people' from his fate," added Ludwig.

"Yes, but the important part is that she had a mate," said Emerald, sitting down beside Morton and looking across him towards at Iggy, Wendy and Junior.

"So?" said Wendy.

"So, they didn't have marriage certificates back then: the only way you'd be recognized as 'mates', and not just 'friends with benefits' is if your union produced a child. So, even though most legends don't talk about her kid, the fact that she had a 'mate' proves she had one."

"Well, one or more," said Iggy.

"Yeah, well Koopa herself said she only had a son. And there are versions of the legends that talk about him too – I think the name started with an 'M'. Umm, what was it again? Methias? Methos?"

"I think it was Methos," said Crystal.

"Then that settles it!" said Emerald.

"You could have told us he had a son back in the caves, y'know," admonished Junior.

"Blame your dad for not letting me tell you the full story – believe me, if he had even let me explain about why there was a shrine to Koopa in that mountain, I would have told you 'her son made it'," said Emerald, throwing her arms up in the air.

"That makes a lot of sense, actually," said Iggy. "Considering what Koopa said about him making the piece she pulled off of the Meteor into Mom's charm, and all: he'd have had to be there when she did it, or at some point after the fact." said Iggy.

"Anyway, would it have really mattered if you guys had known she had a kid?" continued Emerald. "Would you have guessed your mother was descended from ol' Queen Koopa? I sure didn't – young Morton didn't."

"She has a point, you know," said Morton as Emerald clasped his shoulder good-naturedly. "Seeing as most of the Dragon-Koopas died out, what are the odds that her blood line happened to be one of the few to stay around? Of course, if you actually look at the genealogy, we're a pretty big hodge-podge of families: we've got most of the former tribe leaders in us – just look at our abilities! We don't have Snooze-a-Koopa or Electro-Koopa blood, though."

"My great-grandfather came from the Electro-Koopa line," said Emerald. "But I didn't inherit his electrical abilities. Crystal neither."

"Oh shoot, that's right! I totally forgot about him – he was Alistor Magripa's father-in-law. _That's_ where you guys get your electric powers, Luddy and Iggy. Oh man, I can't believe I forgot that we _are_ related to the Electro-Koopa family…" Morton shook his head.

"Can we change the subject now?" groaned Wendy.

"Yeah, like to whether or not Mom's gonna show up to the meeting?" sneered Junior.

"Here we go again," sighed Iggy.

"She's not coming," said Emerald.

"'Knew it," scoffed Junior.

"Is she suffering from Post Dramatic Stress Disorder?" asked Morton, looking expectantly at Emerald.

"I'd have to actually talk to her before I can say anything for sure. But I gathered from these guys that Bowser gets pretty shaken up when he dies and comes back to life..."

"Can we change the subject again?" moaned Wendy, before hastily adding: "_Not_ back to genetics!"

"Genealogy," corrected Morton.

"Whatever."

"I don't wanna change the subject," huffed Junior.

"How immature of you," snarked Ludwig.

"I hope she _does_ get better soon, though," said Lemmy.

"We all do," said Emerald.

"That's debatable," muttered Larry, shooting Junior a reproachful glance.

"I hope it's not like the time when King Dad fell out the window – he was outta action for a week," said Morton.

"That was because of a lingering medical condition," Iggy reminded his brother. "Queen Koopa fixed all of those for Mom – and for the rest of us."

"Except for our empty stomachs," said Morton.

"Don't blame Koopa for not preventing you from puking all over the floor," smirked Lemmy.

"You barfed too!"

"Yeah, but _I_ made it to the sink."

"So the point is, it's just psychological trauma keeping her hidden away," asserted Junior.

"'_Just_ psychological trauma'? You say that like it's a bad thing," frowned Emerald. "And by 'bad' I mean, 'not a good excuse' – that's what you're thinking, right? Psychological trauma is no laughing matter, especially when it involves you own mother, and this world's best fighting chance against the humans."

Sensing that Junior was about to argue against Emerald's last statement, Ludwig piped in. "Zere _could_ be a physical aspect too: my leg still feels rather strange, so I'd hate to sink vat it'd be like to have your heart and lungs magically repaired…"

"Actually, organs aren't as bad as limbs," said Bowser, who had been listening to the discussion through the ajar door for some time, and finally decided to make his appearance. He and Roy took two of the last three Dragon-Koopa seats; the table around which everyone was sitting was an oval – the Koopas got one end, while the other countries got the other half. Bowser was sitting almost directly across from his youngest son, and as he heard the sounds of approaching dignitaries, he had to make one thing clear. "Junior, I don't want to hear another word about your mother. You have no idea what you are talking about, and I will not have you badmouth her in front of me, my guests-" here he gestured towards Emerald, "-your siblings, and especially not in front of the public – including Peach and Mario and all the other people about to enter this room. This is not a request – this is an order. Understood?"

Junior glared daggers at his father. If it was _order_ coming from the King of the Koopas, disobeying could be considered as more than bratty behavior – it could be treason, and he could lose his birthright to the throne. Not that it mattered much: he was the youngest of eight – odds are, the rulership would never fall to him. He used to think it would: that Bowser would make him the heir instead of Ludwig, but that was back when he was the favourite, before Bowselta came back. He supposed the humans could help him out and kill a few of the older Koopalings for him, but at the same time, thinking along those lines disgusted even him. He hated how much he hated them all, but now wasn't the time to make a scene. For all he knew, they'd _all_ die in the war and there'd be no more Koopa Kingdom, but just in case, he wasn't about to throw away his slim chance at ruling it.

"Understood."

-xxx-

The initial flash of pain as her chest was blown apart was nothing compared to the cold blackness that replaced it as the toxic human energy consumed her life force.

And then she felt it: the icy human energy and the indescribable nothingness in its wake giving way to the power of the Mushroom World itself. _Is this death?_ Bowselta had wondered. _Is this what it is like to cease to be your own entity? To rejoin the boundless energy of the universe?_ But something was wrong: if Bowselta Koopa no longer existed, why did she still have sentient, individual thought? Why were the living souls, the fires and lights and the other energies of the world nothing but murmurs, just beyond Bowselta's reach? Was it because she had been killed by a human – was this nothing more than a teasing glimpse into what could be before she was sucked back into true oblivion as the last vestiges of her spirit were eaten away by the bullets? And if so, when would she finally disappear?

"_This is not the end._" A voice suddenly stood out amongst the whispers of the living world. "_You are not gone yet._"

_Who are you?_

"_Koopa_."

_Koopa? So… I really am dead, then._

"_This is not the afterlife – in this reality, there is no such thing._"

_Then what is this?_

"_This is my existence: it is between life and death – between individuality and once more rejoining the collective energy of the world._"

_So that _is_ how death works…_

"_In this realm, yes._"

_What do you mean?_

"_Different universes work different ways: the human world has different energies than this one, as you know, and Bowser told you about at least one other universe where the afterlife _is_ the fate of the deceased._"

_The Underwhere… Wait, how do you know what Bowser told me?_

"_You can feel the souls of the world, can you not? Over the years, I learned to make sense of the murmurs: to pick out individuals and see into their hearts and minds._"

_So you're omniscient?_

"_In a way._"

_Then... why am I here?_

"_You are my flesh and blood. My daughter – seven generations down the line. The charm you wear around your neck is a part of the Mystic Meteor, passed down through our family… but you knew that already._"

_I had a feeling it was linked to the Meteor, but I didn't know anything for sure – and I'm still confused!_

"_That is to be expected…_"

A knock at the door jarred Bowselta from her thoughts. "What?" she snapped.

"It's me!" called Emerald.

"Did… something happen?"

"No – they haven't crossed the border yet, but I-"

"Then go away!" ordered Bowselta, flopping back down onto her belly. The Mystic Meteor sat just in front of her snout, and she had been staring at it as she thought over Koopa's words. She didn't know that she had recreated the scene during which Koopa had actually spoken to her. While her body lay in a puddle of black blood, her spirit being sucked dry by the alien magic, a thin sliver of untainted copper – from the self-inflicted wounds in her throat and nose – managed to connect her charm to the rest of the Meteor, sitting just beyond her snout. It was all Koopa needed, and just as she had done in the past, she called energy directly from the Meteor, overpowering the human magic that poisoned Bowselta and more. She channeled the last of her powers into her daughter's spirit itself, and it was then that she spoke to her – showed her the limbo that she had existed in for two centuries.

Bowselta struggled to get back in the zone and remember more of what Koopa had told her, but all she could hear was Emerald talking to Spiky Tom and the Pionpi guard through the door. Growling in frustration, Bowselta grabbed the Meteor and curled up on her side, holding it against her belly as if it were an egg. She had never really brooded her eggs – she had better things to do than spend six months lying around in bed, although she did try it with Ludwig's egg a couple times early on. The Meteor was very warm; if her mind wasn't still racing, Bowselta could picture dozing off like this.

Then the door opened.

"I told you to go away," grumbled Bowselta.

"Y'know, I was originally planning on lying to you," said Emerald cheerfully, sitting on the bed behind Bowselta. "I was gonna say 'I have news from Bowser' and then once you let me in, I'd say 'There is no news – I just needed an excuse to get in here!'"

"A brilliant plan," said Bowselta sarcastically. "Why didn't you use it?"

"I didn't want to risk you having the guards haul me away when you learned the truth," said Emerald.

"How _did_ you get them to let you in, anyway?"

"I bribed them with food," grinned Emerald. "It was Lemmy's idea – well, sorta: he suggested using food to bribe other people to do something else, but it was such a good idea, I decided to use it now. Plus, I had a feeling they hadn't eaten yet today, or at least that Koopa, ah, Tom, is it? I was sure he hadn't – and I was right, and the people keeping you safe _shouldn't_ be going hungry – and neither should you, which is why I'm here."

"You talk as much as Morton sometimes," muttered Bowselta.

"I'm flattered," said Emerald, picking up one of the bowls from the platter she had brought with her and set on the bed. "Now, do you want orange juice first, or some roasted bird nuggets? Or maybe pudding?"

"I'm not hungry."

"C'mon…" said Emerald, leaning over Bowselta with a spoonful of pudding. "You haven't eaten in days. I'm sure you're hungry – you just don't know it. And this pudding smells _gooood_. _Mmm-mmmm_."

"I told you, I'm not-pfthtdth" Bowselta sputtered as Emerald strategically dropped the pudding into her mouth as she spoke. "Ugh! That's disgusting!" Bowselta shoved her cackling friend away and sat up, wiping her mouth. "What _is_ that?"

"I don't know," chucked Emerald, setting down the bowl of lumpy pink goo. "Something they feed to the spiders, or whatever they're called around here – apparently _they_ love it, but I think that batch might be going off because the guy in the kitchen said nothing about lumps." Bowselta made a sound of disgust and continued to wipe at her lips, before Emerald help up a tall glass of orange juice. "Something to wash it down with?"

Bowselta shot her friend a _very_ dark look as she took the OJ. She only wanted to get rid of the taste of the pudding, but as Emerald predicted, as soon as nourishment hit her palate, the Queen of the Koopa's hunger made itself known, and in a minute, she had downed the whole glass. She begrudgingly handed the empty vessel back to Emerald. "This was all part of your evil plan, wasn't it?"

"The bigger crime would have been to let you go without eating or drinking anything any longer," said Emerald, holding out a chunk of roasted Chicken. "Protein?" Bowselta took it without a 'thank you' and immediately wolfed it down. "I'd give you more, but I don't want you to bring it all back up again: you should have seen the mess those kids of yours made in the kitchen."

Bowselta grunted. "I don't think they've ever been starved like that before. Even when Kamek used Donkey Kong to kidnap them, they were still well-fed. Mind you, all they got were bananas…"

"Lots of potassium," commented Emerald.

"I guess." The two Dragon-Koopas were now sitting side-by-side on the side of the bed, with the Mystic Meteor behind Bowselta. Koopa's Staff was propped up against the beside table beside her. After an awkward silence, Bowselta spoke up. "So… There may not be news from Bowser, but is there _any_ new news at all? Has Mario begun _his_ attack yet?"

"Oh, yeah – he, Luigi, Peach and Daisy just got to the border in the desert: they sent a message back with a Toad Mage, although I heard they're not as good with Crystal Balls as Magikoopas, but whatever: it's faster than waiting for Boos."

"But what's the _news_?" Bowselta didn't need to be babbled to about wizarding skill levels.

"Oh, well, they used a bunch of secret underground pipes to fast-track their progress, and they met up with some other guys, who had been hiding out in a castle near the edge of Sarasaland's half of the desert."

"Wario and Waluigi?"

"Um, I think so."

Bowselta smiled. "Lucky us – last I heard, no one knew where they were: they could have been off in Diamond City, or farther."

"Yeah… I think it was Daisy's idea to take that particular route through the desert – right through the middle, just in case those guys happened to be in their castle, but it was a long-shot, since they had kept radio silence."

"They're lucky the humans didn't find them first," scoffed Bowselta.

"Well, it was a pretty nasty part of the desert, and from what I heard, the humans stuck to the edges to try and get into Sarasaland – y'know, across the sea or the foothills of the mountains. But there _was_ a front running through the desert itself, making sure the Sarasaland desert forces didn't attack. It was on the Mushroom Kingdom side of the border where things are a bit milder."

"But let me guess: as soon as Mario got there, the Birabuto forces rolled right over the humans?"

"Well, the fight was pretty brutal – a lot of injured troops are still trickling back through the Warp Pipes, but it _was_ a victory – at least in that little region of the border. I'm not sure about the rest of the desert."

"I don't suppose Mario took any bullets?"

Emerald was a little taken aback at the question, but she supposed it would be asking too much of Bowselta to hope her age-old nemesis came out completely unscathed, even if he and his friends were some of the Mushroom World's biggest assets. "There were a couple close calls, but he and Luigi both had Invincibility Stars stashed away, which made them impervious to bullets. Um, there was another powerup too – some sort of suit that turns the wearer into a statue?"

"The Tanooki Suit," said Bowselta.

"Yeah!" Emerald shook her head. "Man, you guys have so many weird things down here: it's gonna take forever to memorize all these names."

"It doesn't get hard until you get into the Alligator Archipelago terminology: I really hope we don't have to go and finish off those humans too."

"Kamek said their leader is reasonable…" said Emerald. Kamek himself was still in the Mushroom Kingdom, but through a network of Boo messengers, he informed the leaders up in Sarasaland about Vice-Admiral Travali, and his hopes that the man would prove to be a much more level-headed leader than Admiral Griggs – someone they could reason with. Kamek had even hoped that the humans would back off once Griggs was gone, but the Boos spies he had sent to watch over the humans discovered that the situation was much more complicated.

It turns out that they had grossly underestimated Griggs' motivations. While it's true that he was fighting to protect his world and avenge his brother, once he settled himself in the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms, he had decided that he didn't really want to leave. That is why he had kept attacking Sarasaland, even though it was already apparent that the Mushroom World posed no threat to Earth: he was no longer fighting on behalf of Earth, but on behalf of himself. Two hundred years previously, the man named Toadstool successfully made himself King of the Mushroom People and their beautiful land; Admiral Griggs wasn't so pompous as to name himself King, but he did recognize the opportunity that faced him. He had a hundred times more power, more men, more ships and better technology than Toadstool: the lands that had taken the original humans years to secure had fallen to Griggs in days.

Back on Earth, what awaited Griggs and his soldiers? Their mission had been top secret, and would remain top secret. Perhaps he'd get some rewards for a trumped-up service, and perhaps a promotion, but odds are, he would never rise to the top of the pyramid. He would never run the Navy or become President, not when his greatest achievement was invading a harmless parallel dimension that no one knew about. Then there was the fact that his higher-ups probably wouldn't be happy to learn that the aliens at the other end of the Bermuda Triangle were peaceful and possessed magical abilities that they probably would have freely shared with Earth had they not been brutally attacked out of the blue. The anthropologists and other scientists would surely squeal on Griggs once they got back to Earth, and many of his own men could turn on him as well, angry at being put through a wholly unnecessary war and returning empty-handed – except for the body bags.

On the other hand, there was no telling how long it would be until the portal opened up again, and it would take years for the Navy to build another fleet of ships to come after Griggs' group. He could easily turn his back on Earth and start a new life in the Mushroom World – where energy itself coursed through your veins and fungi restored your vitality. And not only that, but he would be the _ruler_ of the Mushroom World, and to keep them happy, he could give his soldiers plum positions – their own little countries, all across the map. That's what Toadstool did long ago, after all – hence the Mushroom Kingdom had seven superfluous kings answering to Toadstool's descendent. Griggs figured that if Toadstool could do all that with so little, he would have it made in the shade.

There was only one hitch: when he made his decision to stay in the Mushroom World, the Dragon-Koopas were still running around free, and Griggs knew that until they were dead, there would be resistance against his occupation. So, while he told the senior officers in his half of the fleet his plan, he made sure that the rest of the world still thought he was fighting in defense of his home. He said that if everyone surrendered, and showed to him that they posed Earth no threat, the bloodshed would end. He knew that if he showed his true colours, the people would fight back even harder, and even with the promise of power and fortune, he wasn't sure if the news would go down well with all his men, either. But, once the Mushroom World was securely under his control, Griggs felt that he could handle any dissent in his own ranks, and planned to tell everyone the name of the game once the Dragon-Koopas were dead, and Sarasaland secured.

Originally, he was going to wait until the country neighbouring Sarasaland to the west, Jewelry Land, was also taken, so that he'd have the entire continent under his thumb, but then he obtained something even better: the Mystic Meteor. When he heard about the Koopa legend, he decided to find out about everything there was to know about the rock, lest it was a real threat to him. He learned that King Morton Koopa had once tried to find the Mystic Meteor, and promptly interrogated Kamek about it. Betraying Bowser and Bowselta was one thing, but selling out the holiest and most powerful object in the world was too much for Kamek. Praying to Koopa that Griggs wouldn't go back on his deal and start threatening and hurting Kammy again, the ghost lied and said that the search never bore fruit, but Griggs wouldn't accept that. He had a feeling that the missing Dragon-Koopas were after the Meteor, and he needed to find it first.

Unfortunately, Kamek _did_ have a good idea of where the Meteor could be found: he had done a lot of research for Morton, and he had even been sent on a couple preliminary (and top-secret) scouting missions to the Clubban mountains. It was there that he had his vision of a powerful Koopa ruling the world, and believing it to be a sign that the Meteor was near, and that Morton was destined to wield it, he returned to his King. Morton was overjoyed at the news, especially because he was already planning on invading the Mushroom Kingdom, having grown restless in the months since he united the Koopa Kingdom. Kamek returned north with a group of trusted Magikoopas, but then tragedy struck, and Morton was killed by the castle collapse. Kamek then started to wonder if he had misinterpreted the vision: perhaps it had been a bad omen – a trick. He swore the other Magikoopas to secrecy and vowed never to return to the Clubban mountains in search of the Meteor, and when Bowser turned out to be an idiot, and unworthy of the mystical rock, the wizard was never once tempted to break that vow.

That is, until he watched helplessly as Griggs weeded out every other Magikoopa that had accompanied him to the mountains and mercilessly tortured them. He did it as a group, in the dungeons deep within the Koopa Castle that Bowser had sealed, and which Griggs' men had reopened as they ransacked the captured citadel for magic, weapons and secrets. He had the wizards and witches chained to the walls of the circular chamber, so that they could watch everything that happened to each of their companions. And Griggs didn't just use his own devices, but the weapons that had been locked away in the dungeon too – relics from Morton Koopa's brief but bloody rule.

As part of his research, Griggs had learned a few things about the former King of the Koopas – namely, his rise to power. From a commoner, to the mate of a beautiful princess, to the most powerful king in the world… He may have been a mere beast, but Griggs liked his style. He liked his old weapons too, even though there were only a few that were small and light enough for the human to wield. Apparently, when Morton conned the other Dragon-Koopas out of their power and sent them packing, there had been some dissention in his new populace – until they were swiftly silenced, often by the king's own hands, and in the very dungeon where Griggs was forcing Morton's Magikoopas to speak.

Oh, they resisted for a while. Bones were broken and fingers were removed before anyone started to look like they would talk, and even then, Griggs had to kill the ringleaders who were most vocal about their companions' need to keep silent. But compared to the torture, threatening the others with death was almost more motivation for them to keep silent, and so Griggs had to come up with another strategy. Before long, he announced that if they didn't speak, they would be joined in the dungeon by every last member of their families: husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren – all of them. And to prove he wasn't a liar, he sent for the youngest members of the five remaining Magikoopas' bloodlines, and threw them, naked and crying into the puddle of their grandparents' blood that had accumulated in the center of the room, and started shooting.

That got 'em.

Griggs had gone down with eleven children, all under ten years of age; he came back with six, and the general location of the Mystic Meteor. Once he found the rock and captured the Dragon-Koopas, he stopped by Koopa Castle on his way to the Mushroom Kingdom. He showed the Magikoopas the Meteor that they had failed to find themselves, and then put them out of their misery. Like the children, he just used a regular sidearm on the five Magikoopas: none of them were worth his birdshots.

Kamek had watched it all. From start to finish, he was there – silent and invisible, watching between the bars of one of the vacant cells ringing the chamber. He knew every Magikoopa in the room: they had all been Morton's elite – and later, Bowser's as well. What's more, they had been his friends, and while he was already dead, it killed Kamek that he couldn't help them. Had Kammy been in that chamber, perhaps he would have broken down and ended it sooner, but his loyalty to his sister had won Griggs' respect, and the Admiral had decided to uphold his original deal with Kamek, and leave Kammy out of it. Watching what happened down in the dungeon, Kamek was _very_ glad he had told the Admiral where to find the Dragon-Koopas, because if he hadn't, he knew his sister would have suffered a similar fate as the other Magikoopas. He didn't blame them for breaking down: they had large families, and the fate of those children in the chamber was… terrible.

He had wondered what would happen if Griggs didn't find the Meteor in the mountains: would he think the Magikoopas lied to him and go back down, demanding more information? Info they couldn't give him, no matter how many innocent Magikoopas he slaughtered… It was a horrific thought, but even so, Kamek hoped he wouldn't find the Mystic Meteor. His hopes were in vain. Griggs flooded the entire northeastern range of the Koopa Kingdom with soldiers, and within the week, he had found the shrine. The search parties returned home, but a surveillance team remained, and sure enough, they spotted the Dragon-Koopas amassing at the base of the mountain four nights later. The team was prepared to capture the Dragon-Koopas on their own, but Griggs wanted to be there himself: he wanted to look into the eyes of the beast that killed his brother as he ripped away her world's last chance to stop him. And so, under cover of darkness and in an old Koopan airship using the same cloaking technology as the one that had appeared in Central Park so many years earlier, Griggs came to Koopa's Shrine, and set his trap.

"Bowser says that Kamek's the one who told the humans we had gone north," said Bowselta, a dark look on her face.

Emerald cringed, but as with Mario, she knew a lifetime of hatred couldn't be undone in a day. "Yeah, Kammy _did_ mention that, but he did it to protect her – his sister. And his Boo spy friends have been really helpful: didn't Bowser tell you that they've discovered that the new human in charge, um, General… Um… I forget the name – _again_ – but anyway, it doesn't matter: the point is that he's aiming to take over the world, right?"

"That's what Bowser told me, and that it was Admiral Griggs' idea first," confirmed Bowselta. "But he didn't know that Griggs was also out for revenge."

"Revenge against you for killing his brother, you mean?"

Bowselta's head snapped around. "How did you-"

"Peach told us. Apparently, to try and win her and her father over, Griggs fed them propaganda about how you murdered his brother…"

"It was self-defense: his brother was the one who shot me on Earth," said Bowselta.

"That's what Bowser figured," said Emerald.

"He didn't mention that everyone knew about Griggs's bother when he told me the invasion plan…"

"He probably didn't want to upset you," said Emerald, noting the glumness in her friend's comment. "And besides, it doesn't matter: that's what I was gonna say when I asked if Bowser told you about the General – this mess isn't because they're scared of us invading, but because they're a bunch of greedy bastards!"

"They still found out about our world because of me," insisted Bowselta.

"How were you supposed to know you were wearing a piece if the Mystic Meteor? Or that it's a key to the portal, for that matter – I guarantee that _that_ detail's not in the Story of Koopa," Emerald grinned hopefully.

"There were a lot of details missing from the legend," said Bowselta, reaching up and gripping the charm around her neck.

Emerald desperately wanted to ask Bowselta what had transpired between her and Koopa – to find out what exactly happened to her friend, but she didn't want to risk upsetting her. It was a delicate situation to say the least, and after a moment's hesitation, she thought of a question that she knew wouldn't get her thrown out of the room. "More Chicken?"


	18. War

**A/N: Originally, the entire counter-invasion was supposed to be a few pages of overview/exposition (like how I covered **_**Super Mario Bros.**_**, **_**SMB3**_** and **_**Yoshi's Safari**_** in **_**The Queen of the Koopas**_**). However, when I started doing that here, I found the exposition a bit boring and decided to actually detail some action scenes (like the **_**Super Mario World**_** part of **_**QotK**_**). Either way, I knew it would be hard to follow the next few chapters with only my descriptions, so I've uploaded some pictures to help you out. Go to the gallery at **ht tp: / / pics. livejournal. com/walkazo/gallery/00001cc2** and be sure to look at the MAP and the AIRSHIP images (my apologies in advance for the largely unreadable writing on the Koopa Castle diagrams, but hopefully you can still get the gist of it from the pictures themselves). There's also pictures of Crystal and Emerald in "Sketches 1" and "2", respectively.**

Chapter 17: War

It was a good plan. It had been a group effort, but Bowser did contribute his fair share of ideas, as did the Koopalings. It would have made Bowselta proud, and indeed, she didn't complain when Bowser relayed it through her door before packing up with his troops and Warping to Easton. Sarasaland had a very sophisticated Warp Pipe network: rather than investing in railroads or airships like the Koopas, they had simply built more pipes to fast-track travel throughout their vast country. According to Daisy, a number of the pipes heading out to the farthest borders were because of Bowser and Bowselta: they captured the Koopalinga mountains by tricking her father into sending his troops south, and then swinging their own forces north. He didn't have enough time to re-deploy his troops and lost the mountains, and to prevent that from ever happening again, he had the number of military Warps to and from the eastern border doubled.

It proved quite handy in getting every liberated Koopa Troop soldier to the front as soon as the plan was finalized and the meeting adjourned (every soldier except for Spiky Tom, that is, since he remained in Chai with Bowselta, Emerald and Crystal). Bowser was quite impressed, and while he would have liked a few more aerial transports than the handful of airplanes that greeted him and the Koopalings in Easton, he kept his frustration to himself. After all, it wasn't far between them and the Northern Fortress, where an entire fleet of brand new airships – decked out with the latest forcefield technology – awaited the Koopa King and his brood. They were planning to attack at the point along the border that was closest to the Northern Fortress, and which also happened to be a terrain Bowser was rather familiar with: the Koopalinga mountains. All they had to do was punch through the human defenses precariously stationed on the steep cliffs of the cluster of mountains and make a beeline for the Fortress. It was simple, but it was a good plan, and it worked.

Every flying member of the liberated Koopa Troop swarmed over the mountains: Magikoopas deflected the bullets shot up at the Lakitus, who rained Spiny Eggs down on the humans, and amongst the Eggs dived swarms of Paratroopas and Paragoombas. They were joined by Roketons and Chickens from Sarasaland, and while the birds mostly served as distractions for the human marksmen, the Roketon's Gyra proved indispensable, especially when a flight of F-16s showed up to help the overwhelmed ground forces. However, by that point, Bowser and the Koopalings were already making a break for the Northern Fortress. Only a couple Dragon-Koopas could fit on each plane, which had to be piloted by smaller Koopas, but the aircraft were fast. They were escorted by a group of Magikoopas, while the rest of the troops remained behind to finish off the humans. Once they got the airships, the Dragon-Koopas would also switch to that tactic and not move on until every human they encountered was dead or captured, but getting to the Northern Fortress was their only concern at this point.

They braced themselves for a vicious battle when they arrived, for it would be up to the nine Dragon-Koopas, their Magikoopa escort and a few other Koopa Troop members wedged into the planes to take the Fortress. Or to at least secure the Warp Pipe leading back to the Koopalingas and hope the troops had captured the pipe at their end by that point and could send reinforcements. While the Koopa Kingdom's Warp Pipe system wasn't nearly as elaborate as Sarasaland's, the plan did call for their few strategic Warp Points to be used to their full effect in moving the troops that did not tag along with the airships. In the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario would be doing the same thing: pushing through the country from Warp Pipe to Warp Pipe, but instead of using them to get farther ahead, they would be used to send injured soldiers back, and bring fresh fighters to the front, while Mario covered the land by foot. It was a bit like the plumber's usual strategy of fighting the Koopas had been inverted – right down to the part where Bowser's castle becomes the _first_ major conquest.

And, thanks to Queen Koopa, the Northern Fortress proved to be a rather easy conquest at that. As promised, she had removed the protective magic of the Mushroom World from the invading humans, and so attacks that had merely slowed Mario down was usually enough to kill the soldiers. After landing, the Dragon-Koopas used their firebreath, magic spells, sonic screams, ground-pounds and lighting powers to attack the humans from afar, all the while protected from their return-fire by the Magikoopas. The fire, magic and electricity killed any human they hit, and while the ground-pounds and sonic screams merely stunned them, that was still good enough for the Dragon-Koopas, who would advance and put their adversaries out of their misery. Bowser was reminded of what Bowselta had said earlier in the cave: when she told him about how she got her leg wound, she included the part about killing the policeman – she said his neck broke like a toothpick. As the Earth humans dropped like flies before and beneath him, Bowser could see that she was quite right. Part of him even wished Mario had been this easy an opponent.

A few of the Koopalings shared Bowser's opinion, although many more found the entire bloodbath quite unpleasant (Lemmy in particular had a tough time), but they had no choice: they didn't have the means to deal with prisoners yet – not until they had more soldiers. Fortunately, backup materialized quite rapidly. Roy and Wendy split off from the main group with a couple Magikoopas and captured the Warp Pipe to the Koopalings before too long. Roy volunteered to go through, knowing full well he could be delivered into a dean of armed humans, but when he returned, he was accompanied by a squadron of Lakitu, Paratroopas and Paragoombas. Like the Dragon-Koopas, they had found the humans a much easier adversary than they had been expecting. Spiny Eggs that would have merely stunned Mario crushed the men in the mountains, and while the F-16s had given the Roketons a very hard time, the Koopalingas had still been won before long. Despite the Magikoopas' best efforts, many Lakitus _had_ been lost, and once the humans learned that they had to aim at the parts not protected by shells, many Paratroopas and hundreds of Spinies were killed too, and the Paragoombas had been decimated from the start. But it had been a victory nonetheless, and the Koopas had not experienced a victory in many, many years.

While Wendy and Roy fetched more troops, Bowser and the rest of the Koopalings stormed the castle – and found that it was already pandemonium inside. As they had hoped, the captured Koopas, Goombas and Shyguys had been invigorated by the broadcast of what had happened in the stadium. While those close to her knew that Bowselta must have used her magic skeleton key to break out of her bonds, most had no idea what had happened. The transmission hadn't switched from Griggs' speech to the scene on the floor of the stadium until Bowselta had already freed her head and surrounded herself in fire. Most of the people in the stadium hadn't been watching her either, and even those that were couldn't see her fiddling with the tiny key. To almost everyone in the world, it had been a miracle: the Koopas were sure it had been their god herself that had freed Bowselta in a plume of mystical fire, and between that and Koopa's speech, they were filled with their own burning will to fight for her – and for their world.

Prisoners everywhere rioted, and the humans, having lost the magical energy they had grown accustomed too, found themselves too weak to control their charges. Bonds were broken and cells were burst open. Koopas and humans alike were slaughtered in the chaotic skirmishes: the invaders' guns were their only weapons left, but bullets ricocheted off the spinning shells and magical spells of the Koopas. Goombas and other species without robust defenses were still at the mercy of the humans, and so the few uprisings in the Mushroom and Beanbean Kingdoms were swiftly quashed, but the blood flowing in Dark Land was mostly human, as the Koopas led the charge for their soft-bodied allies. In the five hours between Koopa's "resurrection" and Bowser's return to the Northern Fortress, the prisoners held within the building managed to push their way nearly out of the dungeons and were barely being held in place in the final stairwell by a firing squad. Enough shots landed to keep the Koopa Troop at bay, but there were too many Koopas for the humans to advance either. That's when Bowser and the Koopalings busted down the front door.

The humans had enough soldiers to defend the interior of the Fortress from both the inside and outside, but once the external defenses fell, it was all over. The Dragon-Koopas charged through the corridors behind a wall of fire and magic, herding the humans before them. Eventually they reached the dungeons and finding themselves trapped between a hoard of dragons and hundreds of their angry minions, the humans finally threw down their weapons and begged for mercy. Bowser was hesitant, but Lemmy beseeched him to spare the defenseless humans: killing them would be in cold blood, and he couldn't stomach that on top of all the unavoidable slaughter. Ludwig and Larry agreed: without their guns, the humans were harmless to the magical creatures of the Mushroom World, and having prisoners might actually prove useful in negotiating a cease-fire. And so Bowser begrudgingly agreed, and sent the humans to the few usable cells left in the dungeons.

Once they saw that the prisoners had joined the Dragon-Koopas, most of the soldiers stationed in the upper levels of the castle also surrendered. They couldn't win, and they weren't about to throw their lives away on an alien world for a cause they were starting to question. They had come there to protect Earth, but it was soon apparent that their world needed no protection – and yet, Admiral Griggs had continued to attack. The prisoners unanimously denied any plans to invade, and while their power and technology were dangerous, they were clearly no match for what the humans could defend themselves with on Earth. What's more, Koopa herself had said her world posed no harm and beseeched the humans to surrender and return home – the soldiers were skeptical about the whole scene in the stadium, but there was no denying that _something_ had happened.

The panicked communications they received from their leaders didn't make them feel too confident about the whole situation either: evidently, the prisoners _had_ escaped and all the soldiers in the stadium _had_ been killed. Admiral Griggs was dead, and Admiral Travali was too far away to take command of the northern fleet, otherwise General Powell wouldn't be calling the shots – not that he seemed to be doing much more than continuing on Griggs' orders. All the men in the Northern Fortress had been told was to not let it fall into enemy hands, but they knew it was easier said than done, and many openly wondered what was the point. Thousands of prisoners, including every single king, queen, prince and princess they had captured, were back out there; the Koopas had been spoken to by what was practically their version of the messiah, and the Mushroom Worlders were more powerful than ever thanks to that heathen "god".

It was not looking good, and many wanted to just obey Koopa and surrender, however others had the opposite reaction: if the tides had really been turned so much, perhaps Earth _was now_ in danger, and Koopa's plea was just a trick – perhaps Koopa herself had been a trick. The solders were divided and confused, but they knew what they had signed on for, and tried their best to carry out their new leaders' orders. Some refused to surrender even when the Dragon-Koopas came bearing down upon them, and as she deflected their last-stitch attempts to kill Bowser before he killed them, Kammy couldn't help but hope that they would be that loyal when Travali finally ordered them to surrender. Kamek was sure he would, and while it was actually starting to look like the Koopas could win the war without the Vice-Admiral's intervention, she still hoped her brother was right.

-xxx-

Bowser and the Koopalings were pleased to see that the humans occupying the Northern Fortress had behaved themselves for the most part. The only thing missing was a ten-year-old doomship that had cloaking technology (the sister ship to the one that had carried the Timulator on Earth), but Boo spies had reported that the ship was parked at the Mushroom Kingdom Castle, so there was no fear of the being invisibly ambushed again. The scientists (all of whom surrendered immediately and without fuss) had focused on the long-disused flying castle and the decommissioned flying saucers Bowser used to hoist Peach's Castle into space many years back. Therefore, the fleet of sixteen new forcefield-equipped airships had gone unmolested, and could immediately be taken out into battle, as could all the older wooden airships. Even the submarines moored in the underground docks to the east (accessed via a Warp Pipe within the Fortress) were untouched.

The flying castle did not fare so well, thanks to the scientists' invasive research on its floating mechanisms, but it was too slow and large to be useful anyway: the human planes would destroy it in a heartbeat. Four F-16s that had been stationed at the Fortress had actually been captured in the attack. Assuming that the humans only had one squadron of the planes in the north, and that that included the four that had been shot down by the _7-Koopa-7_ and the four that had just been destroyed at the Koopalingas, the number of F-16s still flying around was rather small. Roy figured there was eight at the most, and zero at the least, but there was still an aircraft carrier filled with F-18s in the south, and there were likely planes stationed at Koopa Castle as well, so they were far from being in the clear.

Of course, that's what the airships were for, and after a quick Crystal Ball communication to Sarasaland (one of the recently freed Northern Fortress crystal-gazers had been sent back to Chai via. Warp Pipe), Bowser and the Koopalings departed. Only a few soldiers stayed behind to guard the Warp points and mind the human prisoners in the Fortress; the rest went with the Dragon-Koopas, who split up in order to cover all of Dark Land as fast as they could. Iggy and Lemmy took four airships and headed west, where they would move down along the Sarasaland border. The Roketons that helped at the Koopalingas would swell their support group, which included a large amount of the old wooden airships; they didn't possess forcefields, but they could work as transports, and perhaps even get a few good Bullet Bill shots in now and then. However, since the humans had ingrained themselves in the cavernous cliffs of the borderlands, progression was slow and laborious.

Meanwhile, Wendy and Junior took three of the airships and covered the northern reaches. They had more area to cover, but they soon found that their task was much easier than their brothers' to the west: as expected, many of the Magikoopa villages had nearly freed themselves by the time the Koopalings arrived, and a few had completely eliminated their alien occupants. Larry and Morton also made swift progress with their four airships in the east: like in the north, many of the villages revolted upon seeing Koopa's message, and since very few human guards had been spared for the little towns, the citizens usually gained the upper hand before long. The humans were overwhelmed by the amount of control that was slipping through their fingers – and the amount of land that went with it – on _both_ fronts.

By nightfall, Mario was already halfway between the desert and Toad Town in the west, travelling along the Sarasaland-Mushroom Kingdom border and obliterating the forces that had barely been kept at bay by the kingdom to the north. Queen Koopa was the main reason for the imbalance of power letting the native humans overcome their invading cousins so easily, but Mario, Luigi, Peach and Daisy all believed the Star Spirits were helping them too. They were finding more than average amounts of Invincibility Stars on their way, and their effects seemed to last longer, even though most of the humans' natural magical abilities had been lessened by Koopa's actions. They were also having a lot of lucky breaks: while many Toads and Sarasalanders fell to the bullets, none of their four human ringleaders were ever hit, nor were Wario or Waluigi. And, while the Koopas had airships at their disposal, not even Wendy and Junior's largely uncontested group matched Mario & co.'s speed as they blasted their way along the army-laden Mushroom-Sarasaland border.

Kept up-to-date by the Magikoopa and Toad Mages stationed in Sarasaland, Bowselta didn't think the different speeds were due to some sort of higher power at all. The humans on the Mushroom Kingdom border had been battling Sarasaland forces non-stop since noon, and so Mario was just picking them off as far as she was concerned. Her family had the much harder assignment. The battles along the Easton border were mainly humans picking off lumbering rock people from their safe perches on the mountainsides – not nearly as taxing on the invaders as the brutal battles along Birabuto and Chai. Besides, unlike Mario's group, who were just making a beeline for Toad Town and leaving the Sarasalanders to hop across the border and make sure the land wasn't recaptured, the Koopas had to blanket their entire country. Despite splitting up into four groups, they still had to zig-zag back and forth to make sure they hit every little town and village, all of which had some sort of human presence that had to be quashed. Even the terrain between settlements had to be carefully swept, lest there were humans hiding in the cavernous mountains, just waiting to get behind the front lines and attack the Koopas from behind.

All that was the reason why it was nearly midnight by the time Bowser made the final approach towards his castle. He, Roy and Ludwig had taken five forcefield-bearing airships and many more wooden crafts and were slowly clearing the villages bordering the uninhabited chain of volcanoes in the center of Dark Land. They fanned out as best they could, but they still had to weave back and forth as they headed south, only coming back together as they neared their target. It was then that the final flight of F-16s made their appearance (Roy suspected they had been stationed at Koopa Castle, like the eight planes at the Northern Fortress), but the forcefields worked wonders, and the four little jets were no match for the airships. They _did_ manage to take down two of the old transports, however, and like the _Seven_, one of the new airships sustained damage when a crashing F-16 managed to kamikaze itself straight through the forcefield, but it wasn't a fatal encounter for the airship. While very powerful, the airships were dealing with proportionately less raw energy than the _Seven_, and so they were much more resistant to the instability that claimed the airplane.

With the F-16s dispatched, the airships started on the final run to Koopa Castle. Bowser was filled with nervous excitement: it seemed like it had been an eternity since he saw his home, and now he was finally back – and ready to kick those sorry humans out on their asses. He was sure the planes had been the worst they could throw at the Koopas – sure, they probably had tonnes of gun-toting soldiers on the inside, but Bowser was ready for them. As they began their ascent over the last hill, Kammy shuffled up to her king. "Do you reckon Mario used to feel like this when he neared the castle, Your Tenseness."

"I'm not tense, I'm excited," growled Bowser.

"Oh, so _that's_ why you wrecked the guardrail?" Kammy smirked as Bowser realized he had twisted the railing that kept people from walking off the edge of the bridge and falling onto the glass paneling that formed a hemisphere around the nose of the bridge. It was similar to the _7-Koopa-7_'s bridge, but with glass underneath as well as in front and above. Most of the view underfoot was of the slender bow of the airship, which stuck far out in front of the bridge, although the ground could be seen on either side and in front. The airships were designed more like the modern human warships than the old sailing-ship lookalikes, so the bridge was located on a tower above the bulk of the vessel. However, unlike the human destroyers, the tower extended almost all the way back to the stern, which held the engines. A second column extended out of the bottom of the airship, mirroring the tower above, except with forward-facing doors instead of the bubble of glass surrounding the bridge.

Letting go of the warped metal, Bowser struggled to find an excuse. "Uh, I was just… testing my strength! It's been a while since I've been in a battle like this. Um, not counting this afternoon at the Northern Fortress, I mean."

"Whatever you say, Your Transparentness."

Bowser scowled, but at that moment, his airship soared over the crest of the hill and his attention was diverted from his cheeky Chief Advisor to the vista before him. Even from afar, and lit only by the lava below and its red light reflecting off the low clouds of volcanic ash, he could tell the castle was badly damaged. The northeastern tower (the guard/lookout tower) was demolished and the domed roof above the center of the castle had a gaping hole in it. There were numerous other holes blasted into the sides of the fortress as well; the eastern wing in particular looked bad (which was worrisome, as it was the primary storage area, and Bowser was counting on being able to stock up on supplies at the castle). The abandoned city between the airships and the castle was also different, but not because of additional damage: with the low-light vision developed after years of squinting in the black nights of Dark Land, Bowser could see that the ruins were crawling with humans. They were waiting with heavy artillery for the airships to get in range, but Bowser had a surprise for them.

He slammed his hand onto the com button on the console beside him, barking a single word order to his entire fleet: "NOW!" The airship roared to life, nearly doubling its speed and opening fire as it streaked over the ruined city; Roy's vessel and a third airship did the same on either side. The humans shot at the three leading airships, but the forcefields –powered by the strengthened energy of the Mushroom World – deflected everything, while the airships' lasers and Bullet Bills rained down upon the soldiers. Leaving the fourth airship (the damaged one, although its lower shields were at full strength, so it wasn't a problem) and the older transports to take care of the humans that survived the initial bombardment, Ludwig swung his own ship around. Inside the hill the fleet had just passed over was the Warp Pipe complex, and the airship's scanner showed that a number of humans had barricaded themselves within the bunker. That was an unwise decision, because the complex needed to be captured, and aside from the pipes themselves, there was only one way out – and that way was currently blocked by the Banzai Bill blaster that made up the prow of Ludwig's airship.

As one of the giant bullets was prepped for launch, Ludwig activated the loudspeakers of the airship. The humans had closed the blast doors of the bunker, but just as it would not stop the Banzai Bill, Ludwig knew they could hear him. "Attention humans inside zee Varp Pipe complex, zis is your vone and only chance to surrender. I know you are trying to defend zis bunker, and not merely using it to escape, because I can see on my sensors zat your numbers are not lessening. Zis is a bad idea: if you vant to live, you _should_ evacuate. Or better yet, open zee door and surrender, because vee intend to reclaim zis entire vorld, and Varping avay vill only vork so long: vee _vill_ catch up to you." Ludwig paused, but there was no change: the humans were still staying put – many of them were just behind the door. "You have ten seconds to surrender, or I vill blow zee door avay and my troops vill march in and capture you all. Ten. Nine. Eight…"

Ludwig continued the countdown, his finger hovering above the 'Launch' button and his eyes on the display panels: the humans were still immobile. He could hear the explosions of the ships over the city and sighed as the countdown came to an end. "Sree. Two. Vone… Time is up." He hit the button and the Banzai Bill blasted from its launcher, smashing down the door and exploding within the mountain. Many of the human lifesigns on Ludwig's display screen went dark.

-x-

The three airships surrounded Koopa Castle. Roy's touched down on the landbridge and like Ludwig, he used a Banzai Bill to blow away the door to the entrance hall. The bottom tower sat flat on the ground and the airship's bay doors swung open, letting the Koopa Troop swarm into the castle – both the freed soldiers and the citizens they had picked up on the way (almost everyone in Dark Land wanted to help the cause). Roy joined them while the rest of the bridge crew remained at their posts; once their charges had all disembarked, they took flight once more, returning to the city to switch places with the other airship, which was also filled with eager troops.

The second airship flew down past Roy's ship, and while it had a Banzai Bill prepared, it found that it didn't need to blast open the hangarbay doors. The pilot (a Koopatrol, although you couldn't tell without her armor) figured the humans had opened them to let the F-16s out and never closed them, but she didn't dwell on it long as she carefully stuck the nose of the airship into the hangar (the main body was too tall to fit inside). Doors on the sides of the upper tower opened and Koopas, Shyguys and Goombas exited onto the deck of the airship, immediately turning and running towards the bow as the vessel fired a salvo of Bullet Bills at the human soldiers within the hanger. Hopping down from the airship, the Koopa Troops made a beeline across the now-lifeless hanger towards the stairs leading up to the rest of the castle. More humans were on their way down, however, and it was a tough fight. The Magikoopas in the group took turns producing the draining barrier spells against the bullets while Hammer and Boomerang Bros. hurled their projectiles at their assailants above.

Bowser's airship took to the roof, where it hovered above the destroyed dome and cleared out as many humans within the interior of the castle as it could with its lasers and Bullet Bill Blasters. Bowser's Castle was shaped like a box, with the rooms around the outside and a big open area on the inside. This is where he would combat Mario – filling the space with soldiers, temporary platforms and structures that he would then move around before their next confrontation. After Bowselta called it quits, however, the area had been converted into a training ground ringed by elevator platforms and escalators to make it easier to transport cargo around the castle. As a result, it was very clear and spacious beneath the airship (unlike the twisted mazes of old), making it quite easy for the marksmen to decimate the humans within. Every spindly little platform was sliced in half and every ledge was crumbled, sending many soldiers spiraling down the "bottomless" pits below (the lava had all been pumped out of the chamber long ago). Bowser felt a twinge of sadness as he watched the feeds from the cameras in the airship's belly showing the continued destruction of his home, but he knew it was necessary – and that it could be rebuilt once it was all over.

Once the humans were subdued, the lower doors of the airship opened and a cloud of Koopa Paratroopas, Paragoombas, Lakitus and even Parabuzzies and Para-Beetles descended into the chasm, picking off the surviving humans and breaking into the surrounding corridors. The airship then flew over to another section of the roof (a flat part, next to the ruins of the northeastern tower); it hovered just over the concrete and let its ground troops file out. Bowser could see why the ship's captain decided not to land: the damaged roof even seemed unstable under the king's weight. But that gave him an idea, and while his soldiers scurried over to the ruins of tower and clambered down what remained of its stairwell, he waited until the airship lifted away from the roof and then marched across the concrete.

"Um, what are you doing? The stairs are _this_ way, Your Confuzzledness," said Kammy, following Bowser with the two other Magikoopas she had appointed as personal barrier-makers for the king.

"I'm not taking the stairs," grinned Bowser, finally stopping.

Kammy's eyes widened. "No, Your Recklessness, don't-"

But she was too late, and Bowser leapt into the air. She and the Magikoopas barely had time to summon their brooms before he came crashing down again, ground-pounding his way straight through the ceiling. The Magikoopas dived down after him and put up a magical forcefield as fast as they could, but there was no need. Bowser had landed right in the middle of a squad of humans that had been keeping the Koopas filing down from the guard tower at bay with a barrage of bullets. Bowser crushed a number of them beneath both him and a cascade of rubble, and the rest were stunned by the shockwave of his ground pound, allowing him to finish the entire squad with a pair of fireballs (one in each direction down the hall). Striking a quick pose to his cheering minions, Bowser waved them over. "Come on! We have a castle to clear!" He set off with his troops at his heels, the faster members of which swiftly started passing him, but that was okay: it spared _him_ the trouble of kicking down the doors they passed to check for humans.

The fourth floor of the east wing was all guest rooms, however, and they met very few humans as they ran. Most of the troops went down to the next floor when they reached the southeastern stairwell, although a few went up to make sure there were no humans lurking in that tower and a couple accompanied Bowser as he charged down the back hallway – the one that housed his family's quarters. Bowser personally smashed every door open, and while every room was deserted, to Bowser's rage, they were also ransacked, and while Kammy wouldn't let him dawdle and confirm his suspicions, he guessed they had been looted as well. By the time he came to the western end of the corridor, he was in a towering rage. The west wing was already taken care of: it housed the Magikoopa studies, and so the witches and wizards from Bowser's airship had blasted straight through from the castle interior to see that their domain was purged of humans. Knowing they'd also take care of the southwestern observatory and northwestern diplomacy towers, Bowser went downstairs and was delighted to find the third floor of the western wing filled with humans he could take his anger out on. It was the upper level of the medical wing and they weren't giving it up without a fight – and that was just too bad for them.

The King of the Koopas used every power in his arsenal to obliterate the foes in his path: even the so-called fireproof carpeting melted under the heat of his flames. He used his lightning powers to blast open every door he came to, and the humans within almost always threw up their hands and surrendered on the spot: most of them were medical officers and their patients – and there were a lot of patients. Like the Northern Fortress, the prisoners of Koopa Castle revolted after witnessing Koopa's message, but unlike in the north (in which the majority of the Koopa Troop had been stationed for training), they weren't numerous enough to overpower their guards. Then, nearly two thirds of the prisoners who _had_ been stationed in Koopa Castle had been brought to the Mushroom World to bear witness to the execution of their Dragon-Koopa leaders. While the remaining few put up a fight that cost the humans dearly, they were swiftly beaten back down.

But as Bowser's fleet flooded through the halls of the castle, the humans realized their sacrifices were all for nothing. After fighting their way out of the stairs from the hangar, that division of the Koopa Troop headed straight over to the dungeons beneath the Throne Room and overwhelmed the weary guards. With their numbers doubled by their newly freed brethren, the platoon flooded the basement level of the castle, with some soldiers heading down to secure the library, the permanent records and the other deep storage rooms.

Like the fourth floor, the basement was clear for the most part, and the soldiers were able to head upstairs and join Roy's forces as they finished up on the first floor. Roy himself had moved on to the second floor and like his father above him, was leading a strike force through the lower level of the medical wing. He was about halfway through when Ludwig arrived at the other end of the hallway (with his requisite Magikoopa defensive barrier).

The Warp Pipe bunker had fallen relatively quickly: after the entrance was blasted open and Koopas came flooding in, most of the humans evacuated through the pipes, leaving ticking bombs in their wake. Ludwig had been expecting something like that, however: when they saw the danger, the Koopas knew to retreat, and no one was killed in the explosions. While the blast damage wasn't extensive, like their bullets, human pyrotechnics were corrosive to the energy of the Mushroom World, and a couple of the Warp Pipes were sucked dry. It was chilling to see the bright green pipes blackened and crumbling like charcoal, but the Koopas had a job to do, and moved on to the chambers in which bombs hadn't been detonated.

Most of the pipes led to areas in Dark Land and the Mushroom Kingdom that were still occupied by humans, and to avoid any nasty surprise attacks, Ludwig instructed the Goombas in his squadron to block them off. It was not a hard task: most of the pipes had been bricked off before the humans got there, and the blocks of material were still littering the complex. While the Goombas did that, Ludwig had his Koopas and Shyguys go to comb the city for survivors of the bombardment, and he himself rushed over to the castle. All the while, the five airships hovered overhead, their lasers primed to defend anything that tried to hurt the ground troops.

By the time Ludwig entered the blood-soaked Entrance Hall, the first floor was completely clear and freed troops were coming up from the dungeons below. He was told that flying troops from Bowser's airship had finished with the interior and were checking out the second and third floors of the eastern wing, which was heavily damaged and possibly unstable. So Ludwig went with the ground troops to the west side of the castle instead, where a multitude of humans found themselves pinned between him and Roy, and had no choice but to surrender.

As the troops rushed around the Koopalings, relieving the humans of their weapons and preparing to escort them to the dungeons, Roy called over their heads to Ludwig. "Dis floor's done – let's go upstairs and do da same 'ting wid da 'tird level: Medical Wing first."

"Vere's Fazzer? How much progress has _he_ made coming down from zee roof?"

Roy (with a large company of Koopas) was already running back towards the southwestern stairs, bellowing over his shoulder as he went. "How da hell should _I_ know?"

Ludwig rolled his eyes as he turned and jogged the other way, wishing there were some Boos around. There had been a few in the vicinity of the Northern Fortress, and they came to assistance of the rebelling prisoners. The ghosts had soon proven very handy in sending messages and keeping tabs on each other as the Koopalings and Bowser made their separate ways around the castle. But Ludwig wasn't surprised there were no Boos at the main castle – they only ever came around the capital during the wet season, when the lava was crusted over and dark.

As Ludwig neared the stairs, Koopas started running up ahead of him, but he had another idea, and nodding at his Magikoopa escort, he teleported himself straight upstairs in a flash of electricity which stunned the humans all around his arrival point. The Magikoopas that were escorting Ludwig had been specifically chosen because they also had teleporting abilities, and so they appeared around him almost immediately after his appearance, but as with Bowser's surprise ground-pound, the barrier they erected was unneeded. Ludwig roasted the stunned humans between him and the stairwell, but when he turned around to get the soldiers on his other side, he found them already consumed in a massive fireball, which then dissipated to reveal his father marching towards him.

"Oh, zere you are. Upstairs is clear, zen?"

"Nice to see you too," grumbled Bowser. "What are you even doing here?"

"I came to help you and Roy after I finished vit zee Varp Pipe complex, as per zee plan, remember?"

"Oh, right. You didn't happen to see Roy, did you?"

"He's right over zere," said Ludwig, pointing behind Bowser, who turned to see Roy at the far end of the corridor.

"IF DIS HALLWAY'S DONE, I'M GOING DAT WAY TO FINISH OFF DA STRAGGLERS!" Roy was shouting at the top of his lungs, but the castle was large and his voice was faint by the time it reached the others.

"WHAT?" bellowed Bowser, even though Roy had already disappeared down the southern hallway.

"He's checking zee back hallvays for stragglers," said Ludwig, who could hear his brother even over the other noises that filled the hallway as the Koopas made sure the human patients and their doctors posed no threat, and escorted the few guards away.

"'Stragglers'? You mean we're done already?"

"Seems so," shrugged Ludwig. "But vee _should_ help vit zose stragglers."

"Roy and his soldiers have those ones covered," said Bowser gesturing to the south. "What other corridors need clearing?"

Ludwig shrugged.

"Maybe we should just go around and check everywhere ourselves," suggested Kammy.

"Easy for you to say – you don't have to walk," said Bowser, poking at Kammy's broomstick.

"It's good exercise, Your Porkyness," she chided, floating out of the Koopa King's reach.

"Grrrrr, do you know how much walking I've done in the past couple weeks? We practically walked from one corner of the kingdom to the other!"

"Not qvite – it was more like vee vere doing vidts razzer zan lengts, and it _vas_ at zee sinnest part of zee country..."

"That's still a lot of walking! I'm surprised we're all not skin and bones by now!" said Bowser.

"_Roy's_ not complaining," smirked Kammy.

"Yeah, well, he's…" Bowser struggled to find something to say that would excuse him from having to measure up to his own son. The closest he could think of was that Roy was young and young people have more energy, but that would make him seem old, which wasn't very flattering. "Well, at least I'm not as old as you!"

"What does that have to do with-"

"Enough talking! We have a castle to finish conquering!" Bowser angrily pushed past Kammy and Ludwig and headed towards the northwest stairs.

"Mweh heh heh – am I good or what?" chuckled Kammy out of the side of her mouth. Over the years, she had refined her ability to make Bowser do what she wanted him to.

"You _are_ good," conceded Ludwig as he trudged off after his father. "Still, I must confess – after sprinting all zee vay over here from zee Varp Pipes, I'm not relishing zee sought of _more_ running eizzer."

"Too bad we don't have Boos to help check everything for us this time," said Kammy.

"_Tell me_ about it."


	19. Homecoming

Chapter 18: Homecoming

After all the humans were dead, locked away or under guard in a few select rooms in the medical wing (_most_ of which was rightfully filled with Koopan patients and doctors once again), the two Koopalings departed with four of the airships. It was past midnight, but most of the troops in their company had rested during the flight down to Koopa Castle and the recently freed prisoners were all rearing to go. Super Mushrooms, enchanted meat and other items would also be distributed to help give them more strength later on in the night; the Koopas couldn't afford any downtime.

Everything was going according to plan: Wendy and Junior were making a lot of progress in the north and Morton and Larry hadn't encountered any problems on the coast. The western border was putting up a fight, but if worse came to worst, Roy could still swing north and help his brothers. Currently, he was heading west from Koopa Castle towards a more heavily populated region of Dark Land, while Ludwig did the same, but to the east. Unless they ended up needing to help out the other Koopalings, they would turn south before they get to the edges of Dark Land and meander their way down to Bowser's Keep, where their father himself would rendezvous with them, having high-tailed it down the sparsely-populated lava-filled center of his kingdom.

Since his progress would be much faster, Bowser remained behind at Koopa Castle for a bit, allowing the most bedraggled members of his troop to rest while his airship was repaired (he changed vessels, so that the four fully operational ships would be put to use immediately). Some had questioned the wisdom of assigning the weakest soldiers and technology to the Koopa King, but Bowser cockily insisted he didn't _need_ a strong escort: _he_ was strong enough to take care of himself. Plus, as the Koopalings liberated Dark Land bit by bit, they were collecting many able-bodied Koopa citizens and also freed up the Warp Pipe system that could transport them. While the Koopalings always welcomed the volunteers to their crews, they didn't hoard the wealth of reserves, and soon many new faces were Warping to Bowser's assistance at Koopa Castle.

The Koopa King appreciated the help, but that's not what brought him to the Warp Pipe complex in person that night. In fact, the regular traffic was halted by the time Bowser reached the bunker, entered one of the chambers, and closed the door. He was not kept waiting for long, and soon Bowselta Koopa stood before him, the Mystic Meteor clasped tightly against her chest, below the charm. At Emerald's insistence, she had a bath before coming over, but while the blood and grime had been washed away, her face was still strained and riddled with sorrow. But when she saw Bowser, she smiled – it was a small smile, but she had missed him, and was sorely happy to see him. He was overjoyed to see her too and crossed the distance between them in a heartbeat, throwing his arms around her, lifting her off her feet and spinning them both around with reckless abandon.

"Bowser!" squeaked Bowselta, who hadn't expected him to be _quite_ that joyous. She couldn't even hold on to him, as her arms were pinned between the Meteor and his belly scales. She knew he wouldn't lose his grip on her, but she liked to maintain some level of control over her body, especially now that she had fully recovered from the infirmity that had followed her revival.

"Sorry," said Bowser, setting Bowselta down, but not letting her go. He was just so happy to be with her again – with one look into her eyes, he could tell she was feeling back to normal. He loved her so much, but rather than say it, this time he could show his love in the usual way, and while she still couldn't hug him back, Bowselta enthusiastically returned his kiss. It seemed like it had been an eternity since they had last been together, and unlike that night in the mountain, there was nothing more important to worry about. The Meteor was safe, sandwiched between the two Dragon-Koopas as they lost themselves in the moment, forgetting about everything that had happened, forgetting the war that was still raging across their world, and forgetting the struggles that were yet to come.

Bowselta even forgot that she _hadn't_ come through the Warp Pipe alone, and with her usually keen senses occupied with Bowser (and vice-versa), it took a while for that to change – when she finally slid her eyes open and caught sight of the three other figures in the room. Thanks to Bowser's spinning, he and his wife were at a right angle to the pipe and a few paces away, which was fortunate as it meant the other travelers didn't bump into them when they followed Bowselta through.

The Koopa Queen's cheeks flushed dark and she wiggled free of Bowser's embrace. "No, no – don't stop on our account: this is heartwarming!" Emerald raised her hands apologetically. "I mean – these guys weren't even watching!" While Emerald had no problem watching the married Koopas rekindling their passion (indeed, the grin on her face was almost as large as Bowser's had been when he first saw his wife), her daughter had thrown her hands over her eyes. She was blushing as much as Bowselta – embarrassed about walking in on the descendent of Koopa and the King of Dark Land on such a tender and _personal_ moment. Bringing up the rear, Spiky Tom had politely bowed his head, lowering his eyes and silently contemplating the floor until the couple had broken apart.

"Well, we have to go anyway," said Bowselta, turning on her heel and marching towards the door. Bowser bounded ahead of her and wrenched it open for her, knowing she had her hands full with the Meteor. Outside, the hallway was empty: Bowselta hadn't wanted a huge crowd of star-struck Koopas to bother her the second she arrived. Only a few Koopas had been present when the group was flown from the Warp Pipe in Easton to the one in the Koopalingas, and the courtyard of the Northern Fortress had been cleared so they could transfer pipes and make the final leg of the journey in peace. "The sooner we get out of here, the sooner the troops can start moving again."

"You're gonna have to face the public _eventually_," remarked Emerald.

"I'll face the people in the castle – I just want to get the Meteor to somewhere secure: the reaction I'll get is bad enough without the rock making it worse," said Bowselta.

"Can you put it in your hammerspace?" suggested Bowser. "Haven't I seen you put the charm in hammerspace before?"

"There's a BIG difference between the charm and the Meteor in its entirety. The Meteor is what brought magical energy to this world from the center of the universe: it's a direct conduit to that energy. Connecting that energy directly to my energy would be overwhelming."

"Did Koopa tell you that?"

"Sorta – she didn't say that explicitly, but she showed me a lot of stuff about… a lot of stuff, and just trust me: it's not a good idea. I mean, the charm is too small to let much energy flow through it at all, but even at that level, I- I always felt weird keeping it in my hammerspace – that's why I didn't do it that much."

By that point they had exited the complex. Emerald and Crystal gawked at the destruction wrought by Ludwig's Banzai Bill, but Bowselta didn't pay it much notice as she led the group down the narrow path. Looking ahead, she did take notice of the damage sustained by the castle and the old city – which had been almost leveled by the bombardment of the airships. Before Bowser could ask her more questions about her out-of-body experience (she'd tell him eventually, but not while they were wandering around in the open), Bowselta decided to change the subject. "What's the status of the train station?"

"Huh? Oh, it's fine. I'm pretty sure the humans have been using the trains to transport stuff, so the system's all intact." Bowser scrunched his brow, trying to remember more details, but he hadn't been paying much attention to those types of reports.

"Good: we can use it to supplement the Warp Pipe network. The Koopalings all know to enlist builders as well as fighters, right? We need as much armor as possible, and the blacksmiths and whatnot will be much more useful to us by making that, rather than fighting."

"Yeah, they know – don't worry," Bowser smiled. "I'm not _completely_ lost without you."

Bowselta returned the smile. "What about the supplies? I can see the damage to the eastern wing from here…"

"Yeah, a bunch of things were wrecked and the humans stole a lot of our stuff too – like, ALL our treasures and coins," Bowser's expression was murderous, but it wasn't all bad news. "On the bright side, they didn't take much armor. I mean, they took the armor off everyone they captured, but they just threw it into some extra storage areas in the basement. Same deal in the Northern Fortress – oh, and _that_ castle's storerooms weren't wrecked at all, and there was TONNES of armor and weapons and things. Bob-ombs and Bullet Bills and-"

"Did you notice if there were any spare forcefield generators? Here or in the Northern Fortress?"

"No, sorry. Why? Kammy might have seen one…"

"Where _is_ Kammy?" frowned Bowselta. "I was expecting her to be with you back there."

"She's helping the Medikoopas and the other doctors – she wanted to come, but they're pretty busy."

"Are there lots of casualties?" asked Emerald. "I can help too – I don't know much about your southern species, but if there's any Spikes, Clubbas or Shy Guys, I'm your woman!"

"Most of the troops are basic Koopas… Troopas, Paratroopas, Hammer Bros. Magikoopas… Goombas are kinda useless in battle, so we mostly keep them on the ships or have them do stuff behind the front, although the Paragoombas help with the aerial assaults. We _do_ have a fair number of Shy Guys fighting, though:

their masks apparently deflect bullets – Koopa shells are bullet-proof now too, by the way."

"So I've heard," said Bowselta. "Does being hit in the shell still leave black marks?"

"'Still'?" Bowser didn't like the sound of that, and his suspicions were confirmed when Bowselta turned her back to him, showing him almost a dozen little black marks riddling her shell; a couple of the spikes even hard dark grey streaks where bullets had grazed them. Bowser paled: he hadn't noticed those marks back at the stadium or in Sarasaland. He also noticed that the black patch on her leg was a whole lot bigger, and then there was the sinister stain on her chest, behind and above where her charm lay. The scales that should be healthy and green were black, and her yellow belly scutes were dark grey.

"It looks a lot worse than it is," said Bowselta, noticing his concern. "I didn't even realize my shell as splotchy until Emerald pointed it out – I can't feel it at all."

"We can't feel _anything_ back there," said Bowser. "And what about the rest of it – I mean, the spot on your leg, it's-"

"It's only that big because I was shot a second time in the stadium," explained Bowselta. "That bullet didn't affect me as much as the first one did since it happened here, and not in the human world, and the fact that the Meteor itself was so close – and that I was wearing a piece of it – probably helped. Anyway, Koopa's power expelled the bullet, and she got rid of everything that had lodged in my chest, and I feel fine!"

"But there's so much of it…" then a thought occurred to Bowser. "Hey, if Koopa could get rid of the bullets, why couldn't she get rid of the- I mean, their, er, lasting… impact."

"Why couldn't she get rid of the Mark of the Dead?" unlike Bowser, Bowselta wasn't afraid to call it like it is. "It's beyond her power – beyond this world's power." She shook her head sadly. "It can't be helped."

"So, you're still…"

"She _did_ slow the progress of it," said Bowselta. She herself was troubled by the fact that the mark hadn't disappeared along with the rest of her wounds, but now was not the time to worry about that, and she was determined to get Bowser's mind off of it as well. "It's another aspect of our world's new immunity against the human energy." Bowselta thought for a moment. "Well… 'immunity' is too strong a word, but we are more _resistant_, that's for sure." Bowser still looked glum, so Bowselta kept trying. "And my leg doesn't hurt at all anymore."

"How badly _was_ it hurting you?" asked Bowser, looking his wife in the eye. "I saw that you were sorta limping by the time we got to the Clubban mountains."

Bowselta faltered. "Um, well, it was mostly just a dull ache, and it was worse sometimes, but Emerald figures it was due to stress more than anything else."

"And the fact that our systems were all weakened," added the other Dragon-Koopa. "We were tired and hungry and on the lam – we had everything going against us!"

"No need to sound so cheery about it," growled Bowser.

"Sorry," said Emerald unapologetically. "But the point is, even though it's still stressful, what with the war and all, everything else is much better: we're well fed, and passably well-rested, and the tide's turning in our favour-"

"For now," said Bowser.

Bowselta sighed. "Hey now, what happened to the happy-go-lucky Dragon-Koopa who greeted me in the Warp Pipe complex just a few minutes ago? Come on – cheer up!"

"I think Emerald's getting to you," said Bowser. He wasn't used to the queen being this upbeat, although he supposed talking to the Koopan god could have been part of her newfound optimism.

"You better not mean that as an insult, bucko," huffed Emerald good-naturedly.

"I mean _everything_ as an insult, Lemon-head."

"_Lemon-head?_" Emerald snorted.

"You know, because your hair's yellow… And I guess your eyes are to, right?"

Emerald raised her eyebrow and turned to her daughter. "Can you believe this guy? Really? Is he always like this?" Her last question was directed at Spiky Tom, who was following a couple steps behind the Dragon-Koopas.

"Usually, he insults Chief Advisor Kammy Koopa, and he usually has better names than 'Lemon-head'," reported the old Koopa Troopa.

"Gimme a break – I've had a long day!" growled the Koopa King as Bowselta and Emerald laughed; Crystal smiled behind her long bangs, but she was too scared to openly derive pleasure from the Koopa King's embarrassment.

By that point they had reached the main road and started in the direction of the castle. "The pub's in bad shape," remarked Bowselta.

Bowser looked at the ruined building they were passing. "Yeah, I think one of the airships hit it during the raid. I heard it's a pigsty inside, anyway: the humans got into the booze and trashed the place, or something."

Emerald snorted. "You'd think they'd behave themselves: violently invading a mysterious alien world is hardly the time to party-hardy."

"Actually, the soldiers posted here didn't have much to do once Dark Land was taken," said Spiky Tom. "There was no one left to fight, so whenever they weren't on guard duty, I heard they'd wander about the castle finding things to amuse themselves: it doesn't surprise me that they'd come out here and mess about in the bar, too."

"I wonder if that's why so many of the rooms were wrecked," growled Bowser. "The stupid humans had nothing better to do, so they went through all our stuff!"

"I'm glad I took my flute with me on our little trip north," mused Bowselta.

"Yeah – they probably would have messed with it if you had left it here: Ludwig almost had a heart attack when he saw what happened to his violin…"

"What they'd do to it?" asked Emerald.

"Um…" but before Bowser could elaborate, Bowselta stepped off the path and started heading towards the airship that was parked on a clear patch beside the lava. "Um, Bow? Where are you going?"

"I want to test something with its forcefield generator: it won't take long – then we can go to the castle," said Bowselta.

"Um, that might not be a good idea: that ship's forcefield was damaged by a plane and-"

"Kammy didn't say any of the ships were seriously damaged when she reported in on the crystal ball," snapped Bowselta.

"It wasn't _serious_," said Bowser.

"Then why isn't it fixed yet? It's been well over an hour since the castle was taken: if Iggy were here, he could have rebuilt the generator from scratch in that time," said Bowselta accusatorily.

"No, no, it _is_ fixed – I think."

"Then what's the problem?" asked Bowselta incredulously, turning back towards the airship.

"Um, Your Highness?" called Spiky Tom, who hadn't stepped off the main road. "I'd like to head straight back to the castle, if that's okay with you?"

"Of course, Tom," smiled Bowselta, stopping once more and looking back at her loyal Koopatrol. "Thanks for staying with me all this time: I'm sure you _really_ wanted to be _here_, liberating the castle with your own hands."

"I'm starting to get a bit old for that much excitement," chucked Tom. "Guarding you with my own eyes was something I _could_ do, however, and I wouldn't have felt right leaving you – and your two friends, here – alone in the hands of the Sarasalanders."

"Yeah, those Pionpis were a bit creepy," said Emerald.

"'_A bit'?_" croaked Crystal. "They smelt like dead people! They _looked_ like dead people!"

"Oh, one last thing, Tom?" called Bowselta, noticing the Koopatrol turning to go. "Can you send over an energy input panel? I know we have some in the basement storage – in the wing right above the metal shop next to the hangars. And make sure it's a big one: Power Star-sized, okay?"

"Yes, Your Highness," said Tom, making a little bow and starting off towards Koopa Castle at an easy jog. Bowselta also started back towards the airship, although once they reached the open lower bay doors, she had Bowser lead the way – acting as a shield so that she didn't have to face the stares of every Koopa they met ion their way to the engine room. Once they saw the Dragon-Koopas approaching, the Koopas stepped aside to let them pass, and despite their burning curiosity, they kept their eyes to the ground.

When the reached the engine room, they found the repairs complete, although equipment and spare parts littered the floor and shelves. "Sorry for the mess – we were just about to clean up," said the chief engineer – a purple-shelled Dark Koopa.

Bowselta sized up the clutter, shaking her head. "No, it's okay – I can use a lot of this: I want to test something. Go to the bridge and tell them I'll be activating the forcefield a little later, and that there may be a power surge, but that it's all under control. I don't want anyone panicking and interfering. That includes you, understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the engineer saluted and scurried out of the room. Bowselta looked over at the group of mechanics that had been working with the Dark Koopa and jerked her head in the direction of the door. She didn't need to say anything: they knew she wanted them out and with a chorus of "Your Magesty"s and "Your Highness"s, they followed their chief and disappeared into the hall.

Once the door swung close, Bowser scowled. "They should have pluralized those honorifics: what am I, chopped liver?"

"Of course not, dear," said Bowselta. "You're a nice juicy steak. Now here, hold this."

"Huh?" grunted Bowser as Bowselta pushed the Mystic Meteor into his arms. His eyes widened as its warm energy flowed into him. He had touched the Meteor a couple times, but never held it before – he could see why Bowselta didn't mind carrying the heavy chunk of metallic blue space-rock around: the energy boost more than made up for the weight.

"Thanks," said Bowselta, walking over and picking up a connecting hose from a pile of spare parts off to the side.

"Need a hand?" asked Emerald.

"No – you wouldn't know what to do," said Bowselta.

"Hey! I _am_ a mechanic: do you know how many times I have to fix those bloody snowmobiles?"

"This _isn't_ a snowmobile," smirked Bowselta, bending down and opening the bottom of the console that controlled the forcefield generator. Catching sight of all the piping and wiring, Emerald had to admit: her friend had a point. "Besides, I don't have to do much anyway," said Bowselta as she fiddled around with the conduits, eventually screwing the new tube in place before turning to the controls on the console itself, taping in some commands and checking on some readings before turning back to the other Dragon-Koopas. "Now we just need the input panel, and we're good to go."

"What exactly _are_ we good to go about, again?" asked Bowser.

Bowselta smiled. "I've been thinking – Koopa gave us a major leg up, but is it enough to drive the humans all the way back to Earth?"

"What'd'ya mean?" Bowser furrowed his brows. "We're totally whupping them: this time tomorrow, I wouldn't be surprised if we had the entire continent clear of humans."

"Yes, and then what?"

"Um, we sink their battleships?"

"With what?"

"Our airships?"

Bowselta shook her head. "The forcefields do just fine against their airplanes and ground forces, but those ships have pretty big guns, from what I've heard – and they outnumber us."

"Not if you don't include the little ships," protested Bowser. Boo spies had reported that there were ten destroyers, two assault ships and a dozen small landing craft accompanying the aircraft carrier, the _USS Zachary Taylor_. They didn't know how many ships were with the second supercarrier, but they guessed its escort was just as large. They also weren't able to ascertain exactly how the other human fleet was fairing: the Alligator Archipelago was too far away for the ghosts to reach in a timely manner, and so they decided not to waste their energy trying. The Mushroom Continent was more important anyway. The Boos _did_ learn one interesting fact about the second fleet: the humans couldn't talk to them either, although the exact cause for that was still a mystery.

"Even so, they still outgun us. And let's not forget their airplanes: if four little jets managed to break through the defenses of _five_ airships, how well do you think an attack on a fully-loaded aircraft carrier's gonna go?"

Bowser scowled. "Maybe we could overwhelm them with the older airships? Y'know, so they spend so much time shooting those down, these guys can get close enough to destroy the carrier? We'd use flying troops, so losing all those ships wouldn't be so bad, and-"

"It'd still be a bit of a kamikaze mission," said Bowselta.

"So? Those work… Don't they?" Bowser looked over at Emerald and Crystal for help, but Emerald shrugged.

"Don't ask us: we didn't bother learning about that sorta stuff in Westpole."

"Too bad Roy's not here: he'd know," said Crystal.

"He doesn't need to be here, because I know too," said Bowselta. "But whether or not kamikaze missions work is beside the point, because we can't afford to sacrifice ships like that – then what'll we do when the second fleet comes knocking?"

Bowser shook his head. "But Kamek-"

"Could be wrong about that Vice-Admiral Travali – he's not the best judge of character, you know: he absolutely _loved_ Morton, and he turned out to be a _total monster_!"

"Only in the other dimension-"

"The point is, I don't want to risk it: we need to be able to defeat _all_ the humans," then Bowselta smiled. "But you _were_ on the right track with your 'overwhelming them with airships' idea. We don't have enough ships to overpower them and still have enough leftover to maintain our defenses, but we do have enough _troops_ – when it comes to people, we outnumber them, and if you include all the creatures of this world too, the humans are _nothing_. That's why Sarasaland managed to hold out for so long: their population's so large, they could replace everyone the humans knocked down-"

"And they had time to prepare: the only reason we lost was because the Koopa Troop were taken by surprise," fumed Bowser.

"Exactly! …Well, that's _part_ of it. Think about it: how did the humans invade? They flew their planes ahead and leveled or at the very least, damaged all the strongholds and then when the ships arrived, they flooded the land with their troops. That's how they took Dinosaur Land, our kingdom, the Mushroom Kingdom – but not Sarasaland, because unlike the rest of us, Sarasaland is completely _inland_ on this side of the continent. The humans _couldn't_ appear out of nowhere and get them: they had to fly over us or the Mushroom Kingdom to get to Sarasaland, meaning they had to capture our kingdoms first – and that gave Sarasaland enough time to bulk up their defenses and stop the planes when the humans finally turned on them. Being inland also means the humans can't just hop off their ships and amphibious tanks or whatever and march all over the places. The most they can do is warp their people near the border and try to cross, but the border's either mountains, desert or the Muda Sea, so invading by land wouldn't work anyway."

"Okay, so Sarasaland had geography on their side – where are you going with this?"

"Actually, the point I was making was that the humans' strategies are tied to _the water_: Sarasaland was far from the ocean, and so they stayed free. Now, the land is being freed easily because the humans aren't equipped to stop us: our troops are overwhelming their troops, and the power that Koopa gave us is making us a match for their airplanes-"

"But not their boats," said Bowser, catching on. "Once we beat them back to the water, you think we're gonna be stuck."

"I _know_ we're going to be stuck: weren't you listening? Our airships can't sink all their vessels-"

"Why is that, again?"

"Their guns are too big for these forcefields to handle," said Bowselta, tapping the console for emphasis.

"Oh, I get it now – you're going to supercharge one of the ships with the Meteor," grinned Bowser.

"Is that even possible?" gasped Emerald.

"That's what I'm here to find out," said Bowselta. "Queen Koopa just needed a magic scepter to use the energy provided by the Meteor, and if worse comes to worst, we can use her staff again – but I think that technology will actually work better for what I have in mind… Which is _not_ supercharging one of the airships."

"What? But that's a great idea!" protested Bowser.

"No, it's a bad idea: if something _does_ manage to break through despite the supercharged forcefield and the airship is destroyed, we lose everything."

"The Meteor's not _everything_," said Bowser, even as he defensively hugged the rock tighter.

Bowselta saw the constriction of his arm muscles and smirked. "You know that's a lie: we can't afford to lose the Meteor – if the humans get their hands on it, they could possibly find a way to get the power back. At all costs, it _must_ remain in our possession."

"But we _are_ going to use it, right?" asked Bowser. As horrified as he was at the thought of losing the Meteor, he was just as appalled by the thought of merely _hoarding_ the most powerful offensive weapon in the history of the Mushroom World.

"Of course we are-" said Bowselta, but just then, the energy input panel arrived, and Bowselta paused to tell the Koopa to clear the area surrounding the airship: she didn't want anyone fried by accident when she turned on the forcefield. Once the Koopa was gone, Bowselta started hooking the panel (which looked like a large, plain circuitboard) up to the end of the hose, resuming her plotting as she worked. "Once we beat them off of the continent, they _will_ try to take it back. If they were going to surrender, they would by now: they've already lost one capital, and Mario's nearly at Toad Town. The humans have lost too much land, too many men – they won't want to call it quits after all those sacrifices: they're too proud to let it all be in vain. And they've had a taste of what it could be like to rule this world: this mission was conceived as a defensive move, but the second Griggs got here – away from the people who could control him – it became something else. He wanted revenge, and he wanted power – he got the power, and now his survivors want it back."

"Well that's too bad for them, 'cause we're not giving up either," growled Bowser.

"But I think I see what you're saying," said Emerald, looking at Bowselta thoughtfully. "Once we get the humans off the continent, we'll almost be back to where we started: all our forces will be sitting on the coast – ripe for the pickings."

"Exactly," said Bowselta. "Then all they have to do is punch through the front line, and we're screwed: you can bet they'll send some choppers and airplanes straight to Sarasaland, too – to make sure there is no fall-back position this time."

"Then, shouldn't we leave people behind to defend the land? We don't need _everything_ on the shores," said Bowser.

"Did spreading our forces out across the land ever work against _Mario_?"

"No, but-"

"'But' nothing: it won't work against the Earth humans either, and we _do_ need everyone on the shore: we need to prevent the humans from punching through."

"But we can't blockade the entire shoreline of the entire continent, can we?" said Emerald.

"We can guard against land invasions, but not against airplanes," Bowselta smiled again. "But we don't need to: the humans will focus their attack on one point – they'll bring their aircraft carrier nice and close to shore and try to fly their planes over, and we'll be there to stop them. It'll all come down to one final, pitched battle between their forces and ours. That's what this is for." Bowselta straightened up and placed the panel on a clear spot on the forcefield console again. She then started tapping some final calibrations and commands into the controls. "If they only attack with planes and bombs, it'll be no contest: our strength lies in the physical powers of our bodies. Our technology can only do so much: it's helping us reclaim Dark Land, but don't forget that the majority of the fighting is still hand-to-hand, on the ground below the ships – in the castles and towns."

"You don't need to remind me," said Bowser, snorting out a small lick of fire for emphasis. "Taking these castles was some of the best action I've seen in a while: it felt like back when we used to fight Mario all the time, only _I_ was the one capturing the castle and squashing the enemies!"

"D-did you really _squish_ people?" gasped Crystal, aghast.

"Just humans – I imagine they're crunchier than all the Goombas Mario's gotten over the years, though."

Crystal looked like she was going to be sick, so Emerald intervened. "So anyway, Bowselta, you were saying…"

"Well, I actually _was_ going to bring up Mario: in the west, they're barely using technology at all. Roketons for aerial support, and lots of Bob-Ombs, Zappers and Super Scopes, but for the most part, it's just them and their power-ups, and it's working. Of course, it won't do squat against the ships once they reach the shore, which is why, in that final confrontation, we need the humans to come to us – on the ground, not just in the air."

"But seeing as they have a huge disadvantage, they're not going to do that – not unless they have a good reason," said Emerald.

"So, what, are we going to _bait_ them, or something?" Bowser frowned in confusion, but when realization dawned on him, he didn't look any happier. "Hold on a second – you're not thinking of using the _Meteor_ for bait, are you?" The Koopa King squeezed his new favorite rock protectively one more.

"Well, 'bait' is not the word _I'd_ use," said Bowselta, holding out her arms for the Meteor. Bowser hesitated, but with a sigh, handed it over. "The Mystic Meteor will be there, and they will want to come and get it – but it's not that simple. If we just amassed on the shore with the rock, they could drop a few bombs on us and pluck the Meteor from the charred remains, but if we _use_ the rock… That's a different story." Bowselta then set the Meteor on the panel and flipped a switch. Immediately, the panel beneath the Meteor lit up and sparks surrounded the rock, which began to glow faintly. Crystal grabbed hold of her mother's arm for comfort, but Bowselta had the situation under control and smirked confidently as her face became illuminated by the dancing blue light.

She had set up so that the ship created a dome of energy above and around it (a setting so that the ship could defend itself even when sitting on the ground, as it was then), and the power readings on the consoles was steadily rising. Outside, she knew the ship was surrounded by a glowing green shell; she wondered if the glow would even be able to go away once the output peaked – as it was, there was too much energy or the generators to use. But, thanks to Bowselta's alterations to the safety programs, the surplus didn't build up and explode; instead, it spread out to the rest of the ship. The five massive engines were all starting to whir, as if the ship was preparing to take off, and the overhead lights themselves were burning brighter. Alarms blared all over the ship due to the power surge and the backwards flow of energy from the generators, but looking at the flashing readings on the console before her, Bowselta could tell they were perfectly safe. Finally, the energy being pumped out by the generators leveled off; they were working at over 400% capacity and there was still leftover energy coursing through the rest of the airship from the Mystic Meteor. It put the Mushroom Kingdom's most potent Power Stars to shame.

Flipping the switch once more, Bowselta then shut the whole thing down. The panel went dark immediately, but the Meteor didn't die down quite as fast, and without something drawing them in, the sparks of energy that had already been drawn forth bounced free. Recalling the burns Ludwig had sustained in the _7-Koopa-7_'s explosion, Bowser, Emerald and Crystal all recoiled, but Bowselta knew the energy was harmless. An explosion of unstable energy was a far cry from sparks given off by the conduit to the energy of the Mushroom World itself: they wouldn't overwhelm the Dragon-Koopa's biological auras. Seeing Bowselta unconcernedly letting the sparks surround her, the others didn't retreat far and the sparks had soon skipped across the ground and were absorbed into their legs. They could barely feel anything: it was like being a little too close to the lit end of a sparkler – warmth, but no pain.

"Freaky," said Bowser, watching as other sparks disappeared into the walls and consoles around them. The generators and engines were still spinning down, and he eyed the sparks that bounced towards them suspiciously.

As if reading his mind, Bowselta spoke up. "Don't worry about the sparks – they won't do anything to the machinery." She then headed towards the door, which had been thrown open by the panicky Koopas in the halls. "The experiment's over: no harm was done. Have them turn off those bloody alarms – we'll just be a bit longer."

"Yes, Your Highness," chattered the Koopas as their queen slammed the door in their faces. They were still harried about what had just happened, and there were a million questions buzzing around their heads, but if the esoteric Koopa Queen didn't want to talk to them, they had a feeling it was best to stay silent.

As she turned back to the others, Bowselta's eyes were gleaming. "That settles it: I'm sure it'll work, now. There are still quite a few details to work out, but the plan itself is all coming together."

"Meaning…?" prompted Bowser.

"There are two things we can do with this extra juice," said Bowselta, walking towards the jerry-rigged console and the lumpy, dimpled, metallic blue rock sitting atop of it. "We can make the shield stronger, or we can make it _larger_. Supercharging one airship won't be enough to win the war, but if we hook the Meteor up to some spare generators on the shore, with that much energy, we could cover an entire beach with a shield. It'll be more like a ceiling: making a bubble would be too difficult, but that's okay: we just have to make sure their airplanes can't attack the troops from above – forcing them to come for the Meteor on foot. We'll still have to be ready to stop the airplanes from passing overhead and getting into the interior, but with some luck, we can take the carrier before too many take off-"

"Wait a minute, I thought you said we _can't_ sink their ships," said Bowser.

"Not with the airships – but with _us_: we can flood their ships with troops like how they flooded our shores, or like how we flooded these castles. And since we'll have lured most of their troops to the beach with the Meteor…"

"Yeah, yeah I see where you're going: they'll be no one left to defend the boats." Bowser was nodding, but then he frowned. "But how do we _get_ to their ships?"

"We fly: there are lots of flying species, and smaller, maneuverable technology we can use as well: stuff their big ol' gatling guns and missiles won't be fast enough to shoot down."

"Okay, but how do we know _all_ their troops will come ashore?"

"Because of the Meteor: they'd be crazy not to go all-out for it," said Emerald.

"And because they'll be hoping they can kill us and the other leaders, and take out as many of our troops as possible all in one fell swoop: it'll be their last, best hope for reacquiring the continent," said Bowselta. As the Dragon-Koopas had been talking, she had also been undoing her changes to the ship's programming. With all the protocols back to normal, she now bent down and started disconnecting the hose leading to the energy input panel. She was in the home stretch of her scheming too. "The humans know they won't get a _third_ chance at ruling this world: they have no reason to hold back. With the Warp Pipes and the Boo spies, we can dog their ships no matter where on the coast they go – they won't be able to land without us being there to meet them, and as they're discovering now, small skirmishes are our strong suit. We'll spread some airships out along the coast to guard against planes, but I'm pretty sure they'll focus the aircraft at the same spot they focus the landing craft: they'll know that trying to punch through our forces in one go will be their only viable option." Bowselta smirked. "Well, the only viable option _other_ than surrendering, but I highly doubt they're gonna take _that_ option."

"Unfortunately," murmured Crystal.

"I dunno, I'm kinda looking forward to smacking down those humans," grinned Bowser sinisterly. "There's nothing like mortal combat to get your blood pumping… Well, _almost_ nothing…"

Bowselta smirked and turned away from Bowser's smoldering gaze to lift the Meteor off of the panel. "We should head inside straightaway: we have a lot of work to do before you leave."

"Ah yes. All work and no play, I suppose?" sighed Bowser.

"Correct," she smirked, clasping the Meteor in front of her chest and marching back to the door.

Bowser shrugged. "It was worth a shot."


	20. Sinking Battleships

Chapter 19: Sinking Battleships

The first major setback occurred less than an hour after Bowselta's successful forcefield test, when Morton and Larry found themselves up against a human destroyer and the landing craft it was escorting. They were about halfway down the coast, just south of the Clubba/Electro-Koopa-inhabited town of Bayside, from which they had picked up a decent amount of fresh combatants. But they couldn't wait for the ships to land and put those fighters to use: they were on a tight schedule. They couldn't keep going either, however, because the coastlands behind them would be defenseless against another wave of humans. There was only one thing to do.

"We have to attack them," insisted Morton, standing in a triangle with a pair of crystal-gazing Magikoopas. He didn't want to risk the destroyer intercepting and decoding the Koopan radio transmissions, and so he was using one of the Magikoopas to talk with Larry. The other Magikoopa's crystal ball was connected with Kammy in Koopa Castle, flanked by Bowser and Bowselta. Emerald and Crystal were busy helping out in the medical wing.

Bowselta shook her head. "The ships' forcefields won't stand up to the destroyers' guns."

"We don't know that for sure," said Larry; he couldn't see his mother (the curved glass of the balls made the other crystal look like nothing more than a blur smeared up the one side of his glass), but he could hear her.

He could hear his father too: "we don't?"

"How could we know for sure? We've never tried it," said Morton.

"We don't need to try it: I _am_ sure the forcefields won't hold," insisted Bowselta.

"Oooh, did Koopa tell you that?" asked Morton eagerly.

"No," said Bowselta.

"Then how do we know?" asked Morton again. "We should try it: we'll move all the non-flying troops off one or two of our airships and go get those suckers. We have _four_ airships, so even if they both crash, it won't be so bad, not to mention all the older airships, which have than enough space for everyone."

"That's a bad idea – you'll be throwing away half your flight," said Bowselta.

"We won't – and we can't, for that matter: most of our flight's made up of the old wooden ships and we'll keep those far back," said Morton.

"Actually," said Bowser, "I thought it'd be a good idea to use the wooden ships to distract the airships-"

"You mean the plan I said was a kamikaze mission?" growled Bowselta, before turning back to the crystal ball. "Larry's right: it's a bad idea."

"But we have to do _something_," moaned Morton.

"He has a point, Your Apprehensivenesses," said Kammy, looking over her shoulder at the Dragon-Koopas at her end of the crystal ball.

"Don't look at me – _I_ support this plan," said Bowser.

"What plan?" said Bowselta incredulously.

"The one where they attack the humans instead of sitting here yakking," huffed Bowser.

"Yakking is better than dying!" protested Bowselta.

"We're not going to be dying," said Morton. "And if you guys can't come to a consensus against the attack, your 50/50 power split cancels itself out, and the decision falls to me and Larry, and we want to go for it!"

"Yes, we need to do something," said Larry. His face was flushed and his heart was pounding, but his brother was right. Bowselta was just being overprotective again – maybe the whole thing reminded her of when the Koopalings took the first fleet of airships and invaded the Mushroom Kingdom, and how that ended badly. The plan was actually to keep going along the Mushroom Kingdom's coast once they finished with the Koopa Kingdom – they had even been hoping to reach the border by noon. Larry wondered if that had been a little too optimistic.

Bowselta growled in frustration, but she could see that she was hopelessly outnumbered and relented. Before she could change her mind, Morton had his Magikoopa cut off her connection with Kammy's crystal and he and Larry set to work reshuffling the soldiers between the airships. The destroyer was coming ever closer, but the Koopas worked quickly. The two "attack" airships hovered nose-to-nose with the two airships that would remain behind, with their bows overlapping so that the non-flying troops could safely jump down from one ship to the other. It was similar to how the Koopatrol had deposited her troops within the hangar back in the Koopa Castle attack. Since they weren't anticipating any hand-to-hand combat, only a skeleton crew of flying troops remained behind, and at the last minute, Larry decided to accompany them.

"Are you crazy!" bellowed Morton over his ship's external loudspeakers as he saw Larry running out onto the deck of his airship and head towards the other vessel. "Mom's gonna kill me if she finds out I let you go on this attack run! What if she's right and the shields don't hold!"

Larry ignored him as he jumped up to the deck of the other ship and sprinted towards the doors. All the troops had finished departing, and he was the only reason the ships hadn't turned to attack. Once he was on the bridge he'd explain what he was doing to Morton (he was still accompanied by his three Magikoopas, including a crystal-gazer), but obviously he couldn't respond now – the loudspeakers were one-way. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to explain himself eloquently, and was glad the Magikoopas hadn't questioned him. He just felt like a Koopaling had to be there – he couldn't send the troops on what could be a suicide run and just sit and watch.

He didn't want to die, but he supposed it wouldn't matter much if he did. Of all the Koopalings, he was the least valuable in close combat: he didn't have any remarkable magic abilities nor any worldly skills to make up for that. Everything he could do well, like scheming or botany or tennis, were either useless or covered by someone who could do it better. It'd be fitting if he was the one who died flying a ship: maybe he'd even be a martyr, so even if the attack was a resounding failure, it'd be remembered not for that, but for the sacrifice of a brave Koopaling. Maybe Crystal would say something nice at his funeral: she'd surely cry, but she'd always have Roy there to comfort her…

As he closed the door behind him and started down the corridor towards the bridge, Larry shook the image out of his head: it was wrong of him to think that – Roy doesn't _comfort_ people.

-x-

Once he got to the bridge, Larry ordered the Koopas to turn out to sea. He hoped they would have done so on their own, but his presence had confused them, and Morton was still yelling over the loudspeakers. He could make out some of it through the glass: he was telling his younger brother to "get his tail" back out of the airship and making many elaborate threats against the pilot, should he fly off with the Koopaling. Larry was glad he couldn't quite make out the details of that part, and told the pilot to ignore Morton: the Koopaling was all talk and no action. As he spoke to the Koopa Paratroopas on the bridge, he tried to keep his voice calm and level, but despite his best effort, he was shaking a little. He took a deep breath, but it did nothing to calm him as he asked the Magikoopa at his elbow to call Morton's mage on the crystal ball. He spent almost the entire flight trying to explain himself to Morton, who was ranting so fast and furiously, the younger Koopaling barely got the occasional line in. Fortunately, this suited Larry, but he knew there _was_ something he'd have to say, and as the airships approached the destroyer and the three smaller boats accompanying it, he cut Morton off.

"Sorry, I have to use the radio now – maybe the humans will surrender and all that bad stuff _won't_ happen to you because I _won't_ die." Taking his cue, the Magikoopa cut off the crystal ball connection, and watched as Larry walked over to the communications console and hailed the humans. He knew Morton would be listening too, and probably even broadcasting it to a larger audience: they used crystal balls to keep their scheming secret, but all the human-Koopa interactions were made public. They wanted to world to know of their progress.

"What?"

Larry jumped at the sound of the angry human, struggling to sound confident as he replied. "Um, this is Larry Koopa – er, _Prince_ Larry Koopa – of the Koopa Kingdom, and I am asking you to surrender or we'll destroy your ships. Um, these airships are state-of-the-art and we are protected from your weapons by forcefields, so it is no use to fight us."

"We'll see about that," said the human. A second later, the destroyer fired at the airships.

Larry gasped: he hadn't thought they were in range of the destroyer yet, but he had a feeling he had underestimated the range of their missiles. Wondering if he had underestimated their explosive strength as well, he decided that he didn't want to put to the forcefields to the test just yet and turned on the com system. "Use the lasers! Shoot it!"

The Paratroopas and Paragoombas manning every forward-facing laser array opened fire the second the missile was within range. The second airship, following beside and slightly behind Larry's, copied them. The air was filled with red beams of light and the missile was hit. By that point, Larry had scrambled to the helm of his vessel; piloting airships was very simple and all the Koopalings had been taught what to do just in case they found themselves in a situation like this. Larry hadn't flown an airship into battle for years – not since he oversaw the invasion of Grassland, but he knew what to do. The destroyer was firing more missiles at the airships, and Larry didn't want to press his luck: he needed to get close enough to destroy the landing craft before their escort destroyed him.

Pushing the engines to their max, Larry forced the airship to go faster. The Goombas and Koopas were firing their lasers again, but there were a lot more missiles this time – he wondered if that first shot had been a warning. Or a test… had he shown the humans what they wanted by destroying the missile, instead of letting it hit the forcefield? Had they called his bluff?

The lasers were all pointed skyward. One missile exploded, then another, then another, but there were more. How many missiles could the destroyer fire at once, anyway? They were slowly closing in on the destroyer, which was horizontal to the airships and surrounded by the three landing craft, one of which had slipped around to the far side. They would be in range soon, but to Larry, time was barely crawling by and he started to wonder if he had made a horrible mistake: they ships were too far away – there were too many missiles. The first one to make it through the lasers hit the forcefield, but was eliminated in a flash of green. It was right above the bridge, and the Paratroopas and Magikoopas whooped with relief, even as a second missile plunged harmlessly into the shield, but then something bigger hit. Larry wasn't sure what it was, but he was sure of what it did: the airship lurched and the shield sparked angrily – it had taken a lot of energy to stop that last projectile from doing more than shacking the ship.

People yelped and the laser fire became chaotic. Larry didn't even have time to yell in horror – two of the lower-gauge missiles had already made it through the disorganized defenses and exploded on the weakened barrier. It was the _7-Koopa-7_ all over again as the air around the airship turned green; alarms were going off and the ship shuddered as it flew into the fireballs that had punctured its shield. The ship lurched violently as a third missile plowed into its bow and exploded, having been completely unfettered by the faltering shield. Unlike the _Seven_, the airship didn't have a second layer of shielding on its hull (except for the glass around the bridge), and a huge hole was blasted open on the deck below. Larry was glad it had landed down there, instead of on the tower, but he could still hear people panicking in the halls behind him. It hadn't been smooth sailing down the coast – many people had been hurt and killed in the battles that raged below the airships, and a couple old wooden vessels had been felled, but the new airships had never failed. They weren't supposed to fail.

Looking beyond the burning hole in the bow, Larry was snapped out of his racing thoughts by the sight of the first landing craft – it was so close! It'd be in range any second! "The boats!" he cried. "Shoot them!" The Koopa manning the com relayed the order and the crew tried their best to pull themselves together and respond. Bullet Bills and lasers spilled forth from the lower regions of the airship. The lasers didn't go far enough, and Larry had a bad feeling that the humans would be able to deflect the Bullet Bills with their own projectiles, as his troops had deflected their ballistics, but he didn't have a chance to see for himself. More missiles were falling from the sky, and while the generators were still working and the shield was back up, as Bowselta feared, it wasn't powerful enough and the next gunshot from the destroyer crashed straight through the forcefield in front of the bridge.

The Koopas were lucky, however, and the projectile missed its mark, passing overhead and harmlessly passing back through the one-way forcefield above. Unfortunately, its initial puncture wound wasn't sp harmless, and a missile plowed straight through the sparking forcefield, landing on the tower a bit behind the bridge. Most people were thrown from their feet by the jolt, and Larry heard screams coming from the hallway before the automatic blast doors shut the bridge off from the burning hallway. Larry jumped back up and seized the steering wheel; the airship had started to list to port and he wrenched it back upright as smaller bullets pelted at its starboard side. A new alarm screeched at him: the forcefield output panels had finally shorted themselves out as the ship struggled to put out enough energy to stop the latest barrage. The belly of the ship was still protected, but the starboard side was irreparably naked and the rest of the upper regions of the shield were still flickering: many of the top panels had been destroyed, and the port side was doing almost all the work.

The only comfort Larry took was that the humans were in range now and some people on the bottom of the ship were still fighting. One of the small escort vessels had been sliced open by a laser and caught fire, but the warnings blaring on his console told the Koopaling that he was burning too. More missiles were bearing down on him, and while the Koopaling tried to turn the ship and protect the starboard side, it couldn't maneuver as fast as the _Seven_. It wasn't a head-on collision, the next shot from the destroyer's phalanx gatling gun was still fatal. It plowed straight through the over-exerted port shielding and hit a key energy conduit near the back of the ship, which had already been exposed by earlier missile damage. The safeties prevented an explosion by funneling the sparking energy into the surrounding systems, but unlike the power that flooded Bowselta's airship from the Meteor, this energy was corrupted by the bullet. Power wasn't lost completely, but most of the forcefield generators gave up the ghost, unable to cope with the dark, human energy inside their systems as well as around them.

The airship was almost on top of the humans now. "Keep shooting!" cried Larry, but more missiles were hitting – no one was shooting them down with the lasers and the shield was gone. Larry was amazed the humans still had ammo, but he didn't think about it for long. The entire bow of the ship seemed to be blasted away and the glass around the bridge shattered. The missile that had hit it would have killed them all had it not been for the membrane-like shielding that coated it – the last gasp of the generators as they were consumed by the fires ravaging the engine room below.

Two engines, already damaged by missiles and shrapnel, gave out, and the remaining ones were becoming destabilized. Unlike the _Seven_, the airship was designed to automatically vent the raw energy should that happen, but since all the vents on the port side were destroyed, it all escaped on the starboard side. Larry struggled to keep the ship flying straight adjacent the barely controlled energy spurting from the vents; he knew it was going to crash, but he wasn't done yet. His mother said it was a kamikaze mission – he wasn't going to make her a liar. He had no idea what was happening with the second airship; he couldn't even see if the second escort vessel had been downed – like his own crashing command.

"Abandon ship!" he screamed, hitting the final warning alarm and wondering how many people were actually in a position to escape. How many were trapped by the fires, knocked unconscious, or even dead already?

"Sir, what about you?" cried one of the Paratroopas.

"I have a plan!" replied Larry, shuddering with the effort to steer the airship towards the destroyer. He aimed right in the middle, hoping that nothing would happen to knock it too far off-course, and then he locked the controls. "Come on!" he shouted, diving sideways off of the top level of the bridge and blasting the glass paneling before him. The forcefield was gone and while his firebreath wasn't enough to break through the glass, his body was. He spun around in the air so that his spiked shell hit first, but the cascade of shards sliced through the scales covering his neck, face and limbs as he tumbled into the open air. The three Magikoopas had followed immediately behind him and used levitating spells, making sure they were all clear of the ship as is careened past them.

Larry turned and watched as the Paratroopas on the bridge also appeared and spun in the slipstream of the airship, which was wreathed in flames and acrid black smoke. The two starboard engines were flickering blue and white energy that could barely be seen filtering through smoke on that side of the ship, but the scene didn't last long anyway. Larry's aim was true, and the ship smashed into the destroyer, consuming both of them in a brilliant orange fireball. The second airship then screamed overhead: its shield was sparking a bit, but Larry's ship had taken the brunt of the damage, and in the end, the other ship even used its destruction as a smokescreen. It now swooped through the plume of smoke from the wreck, a Banzai Bill primed for launch; Larry heard another echoing explosion and watched as the airship climbed back higher in the air beyond the burning vessels, suspecting they had dispatched the last of the three landing craft.

Craning about, Larry could make out a couple more crewmembers fluttering in the night sky, but while the fires below didn't illuminate the situation very well, he had a sinking feeling that most of the people in the airship _hadn't_ gotten out. But, as he looked beneath him at the two sinking landing crafts and realized that all the humans who had survived the explosions and fire would surely die in the frigid waters, he knew the Koopas had come out much better. It hadn't even been a complete suicide mission: he was alive and the other ship was almost unscathed. He looked back up at the airship, but frowned when he was that it wasn't circling around to pick up the survivors: it was heading south. "What the-?" Larry then turned his own sights south, and the pit of his stomach seemed to drop all the way to the waters below: there were two more destroyers on the horizon, sailing around a curve in the coast.

-x-

The entire run had been televised: Morton used the cameras outfitted on his airship to follow the others – the technology was meant to help in battle by tracking enemies, but the Koopaling had repurposed it. He knew Bowser and Bowselta would want to know what was happening, and while he'd be happy with describing the altercation afterwards, he knew they'd be happier seeing it with their own eyes. Especially since Larry was on one of those ships: in a way, the broadcast was Morton's attempts to avoid a berating for letting his brother go on the mission. And, this way, if Larry _did_ die, Morton wouldn't be the bearer of bad news to his parents: it was the one thing he wouldn't have wanted to describe about the attack.

As he watched the shield faltering and the airship catching fire, Morton wondered if perhaps Larry _would_ die. Between the smoke and the second airship following so closely behind the first, Morton could barely make out what was happening. He flicked on another viewing screen with feed from a different camera as the airship began slipping out of the sky: the main screen was zoomed out enough to show both airships and the human ships, but he had the other camera close in on the crashing airship. He could see what Larry was doing: he was going to crash his vessel into the destroyer, but Morton knew his brother wouldn't simply go down with his ship. "Come on, Larry," he hissed under his breath as he started at the zoomed-in screen. "Come on, Larry, come on, Larry, come on, Larry, come-" suddenly he saw what he was looking for and took manual control of the camera, snapping it off of the airship.

The screen was immediately filled with smoke, and Morton muttered darkly as the people around him gasped, having watched the airship hit the destroyer on the main monitor. He saw the explosion out of the corner of his eye, but his attention was on the smoke as he frustratedly zoomed in and out, fiddling the camera around but not leaving the general area he had initially targeted. He was sure he had seen something solid in the air – something that wasn't debris. "Come on, Larry," he resumed his chant. "Come on, Larry, come _on_, come _on_! Stupid smoke, _come on_!" No one was listening, but talking to himself helped ease the knot that was rapidly forming in his stomach. "It doesn't help that it's pitch black out there even without the smoke – I wish it was daytime. Thanks to our constant cloud-cover there aren't even stars this close to shore, 'cept on the horizon but there's smoke on front of that. Argh, stupid smoke: get out of the way!"

The people around him were starting to mutter as well – something about the radio and the destroyer. Someone called up a third screen – from a camera on the starboard side, by the looks of it, but Morton only spared it a passing glance and tuned out the voices about him as he caught sight of a light in the smoke before him. Zooming in again, a grin slowly spread over his face: there were three lights – two red, one green, and between them, barely illuminated by the wandlight, was Larry.

"Yes!" whooped Morton, pumping his fists in the air and looking around at the crew surrounding his console. "He's alive! He's alive! He's… Shit!" – Morton had finally looked at the third screen.

-x-

Bowselta was glad the humans hadn't tampered with the big screen in the Throne Room of Koopa Castle, like they had with so much of her castle's technology. The Koopas mostly spoke to each other with crystal balls, but many of the battles over the towns were broadcasted on the normal channels, as this one had. They had been winning so handily, and they figured it would be a good thing if they showed that to the world: help keep up the people's fighting spirits. However, Bowselta wasn't sure if this particular battle was the best thing to flaunt, however: she was sure it wasn't going to end, and she wasn't surprised as the airship soon caught fire and crashed. They watched the scene unfold in silence, until Bowser finally spoke up.

"What's with the smoke-screen?" asked Bowser, before looking back at the part of the screen showing the feed of the second airship reappearing behind the column of smoke.

"Morton must have seen something," said Bowselta, looking between both that and the zoomed-in screen. "Hopefully, it was Larry," she added quietly.

Suddenly, the third picture opened up.

"Now what?" asked Bowser. Bowselta and Kammy's breath drew in sharply as the camera finally settled on the destroyers in the distance, but Bowser just squinted at the lights. "Um, are those…"

"More humans? Yes," said Bowselta, before turning to Kammy. "We need to call Morton."

The old Magikoopa hadn't bothered putting her crystal ball away after their last conversation with the Koopalings, but as she held it up, she saw it was already starting to swirl. "Someone's calling _us_."

Bowser and Bowselta looked over as Ludwig appeared in the glass. "I have just finished clearing Gavelview Town – my two airships can meet up vit Morton's group in less zan an hour."

"Good: leave the wooden ships there – Bowser will be right over."

"My soughts exactly," smiled Ludwig, before nodding at his Magikoopa, who ended the call. As soon as he saw the other destroyers, he knew Morton needed backup, but regardless of what was happening on the coast, _someone_ needed to clear the interior. The wooden ships would be no help against the destroyers – leaving them to help Bowser take Ludwig's place away from shore was a no-brainer.

"What do you mean I'll be right over?" asked Bowser as Kammy called Morton's crystal gazer.

"He's going to help Morton and you're going to take over his flight of airships and clear the eastern interior. I had a feeling we'd hit a snag like this, but with any luck, you'll still be able to rendezvous with Roy at the Keep before it gets too late in the day," said Bowselta. "Now get going."

"_Now?_" gasped Bowser.

Bowselta turned back from the crystal, where Morton was now blabbering about how Larry was alive (which Bowselta had already seen on the screen) and how they were all screwed, regardless (which she could also see on the screen). "Yes, _now_."

"But I'm not ready. The crew-"

"The ship's been fully crewed for the past half-hour – the full compliment of soldier's not loaded up yet, but there's a Warp Pipe in the next town south of Gavelview: once you secure it, I'll send the reserves through." Bowselta then turned back to Morton and started arguing with him about what he should do next.

Bowser hovered in place for a moment: he hadn't been expecting to leave his wife so soon. It was a comfort to have her on top of the war, like in the good old days of invading the Mushroom Kingdom, but he didn't want to _leave_ that comfort – he didn't want to leave _her_. He also wanted to know what she was going to do about the ship: he hated not being in the middle of the action, but he supposed he'd find out her plan soon enough.

Looking up, Bowselta misinterpreted Bowser's hesitance. "I'll send Kammy along in a minute: she'll catch up with you before you take off – I promise, this won't take long, _right Morton?_"

As the Koopaling's voiced spilled out of the crystal at a renewed rate (and volume), Bowser sighed and finally lumbered off towards the ruined front doors to the castle. Bowselta didn't look up from the crystal again. Bowser was halfway across the landbridge before he realized he didn't even say 'goodbye'.

-xxx-

It was a close call, but Morton's troops managed to sink the remaining two destroyers. The Koopaling had wanted to follow Larry's lead and use the three remaining airships on the humans, but Bowselta refused: even with Ludwig's backup, the Koopan forces on the coast would be too weakened. If more destroyers attacked, the only other airship in range would be Bowser's, and he was needed elsewhere. They needed a new strategy, and while she wasn't happy about it, Bowselta ended up borrowing her husband's plan, and told Morton to use the _older_ airships as cover for one newer airship. The airship would then skim as close to the water as possible, so that all its energy could be focused on only a half-shell forcefield, which she hoped would buy it more time against the missiles.

As it turns out, Bowser's idea to use the smaller airships wasn't very effective: the destroyers knew the bigger airship was the real danger and focused almost entirely on it. The shield did last a bit longer than Larry's, but there was twice as much being fired at it by the two destroyers, which made good on their name. The airship never reached its target, instead plowing into the water and sinking when a missile dropped almost vertically down through its rear shielding and destroyed three out of the five engines. However, it wasn't all in vain: the soldiers inside managed to fire a couple Banzai Bills into the water before all power was lost, which the humans were not expecting. The explosives plowed through the sea like giant torpedoes and while they would have been slow enough to shoot out of the skies, the humans couldn't make sense of their radar readings in time to pount their weapons at the water, and one of the destroyers was sunk.

Once the shielded airship had been eliminated, the remaining humans turned their attentions to the wooden ships, which were spewing Bullet Bills as fast as they could. In the end, the lone destroyer finished off all the airships, but it had sustained heavy damage. Against Bowselta's recommendations, Morton sent a third airship to finish it off, but he unwisely decided not to sacrifice even more of his wooden vessels, and while the airship returned victorious, the destroyer had gone down fighting. When Ludwig finally arrived, he found only one airship with a functioning shield, a mere handful of over-stuffed wooden airships, and a shuddering, bottle-shocked Larry.

"You shouldn't have gone," sighed the oldest Koopaling, but he understood why his younger brother had did what he did, and looking into his eyes, Larry knew that.

Once they reached the next town with a Warp Pipe, all the Paratroopas and Paratroopas who had survived the two crashes (and who had quickly been picked up by a pair of the wooden airships, same as Larry and his Magikoopas) would be sent to Koopa castle to recover. They were all chilled, in shock and many had burns and other injuries, although most of them – like Larry's many glass-cuts – had been healed long before Ludwig rendezvoused with the flight. The psychological toll still haunted the crewmembers, and Larry was especially bad off: it was his second aircraft crash in under ten days, and what's more, he felt responsible for this one, in a way. But Ludwig didn't even bother asking him if he'd like to go back too: he knew what the answer would be. The Koopalings were the heirs to the throne, and the blood of Koopa herself ran in their veins: they couldn't run away.

So instead, Ludwig asked Larry if he'd like to fly with him, and while some might have guessed it was to keep the younger Koopaling from risking his neck again, they both knew Ludwig was simply being kind. Larry would have pressed on alone if he had too, but he was grateful to simply stay on his brother's ship and watch _him_ make the decisions: he didn't want to be a leader anymore – not even of a single airship. And Ludwig didn't blame him.


	21. The Sting of a Hornet

Chapter 20: the Sting of a Hornet

While they didn't have destroyers to contend with, Iggy and Lemmy were up against the countless hundreds of humans who had attempted to invade Sarasaland from the mountainous east, and their progression down the western border of Dark Land was the slowest of all the Koopan fleets. The humans had learned to take advantage of the terrain: they hid in the rocks so the airships couldn't simply obliterate them with Bullet Bills or lasers, and so the Koopas were forced to come down and get them. As with the castle attacks, the magical protection given to the Koopas by their shells was a great asset, and many had supplemental Koopatrol or Terrapin armor as well, but the humans still claimed many lives as they were slowly overcome.

While most of the Sarasalanders were aiding Mario's group spread through the central and western Mushroom Kingdom, the Roketons from the Koopalinga siege and the forces of Easton that had been keeping the humans at bay swelled the Koopa's numbers. Even so, finding their own replacement combatants was still a major priority for the Koopas, and while Iggy oversaw the fighting on the border, Lemmy took two of the four newer airships and went deeper into Dark Land. The western border had been Koopa Troopa territory, although most of the small villages that dotted the region were melting pots of all the basic Koopa species. The human presence in the west was all concentrated on the border, and so almost every villages was only guarded by a couple of soldiers. And, as in the east and north, many of them were eliminated far before Lemmy's forces appeared overhead.

The Koopaling was still struggling with himself over his role in the war: the carnage and death around him made him wonder if he'd ever sleep well again. It was a hundred times worse than Mario's most violent quests – Lemmy wondered if he'd ever get the smell of blood out of his nostrils. Iggy knew Lemmy wasn't handling the fighting as well as he should, and that's why he sent him to get recruits. It was a wise move: freeing the villages often required bloodshed, but seeing the people joyfully greet him and his soldiers as their saviours helped remind Lemmy that the Koopas were doing the right thing in fighting back. And it wasn't like they _weren't_ showing the humans mercy: many of the soldiers threw their weapons to the ground when the airships appeared overhead, and many more had been overwhelmed and thrown in jail by the villagers themselves when they witnessed Queen Koopa's transmission.

Lemmy still didn't relish the thought of recruiting people for war, but the Koopas _wanted_ to fight, and _he_ wanted to help, so he swallowed his personal demons and worked tirelessly throughout the night. Between Iggy's fighting and Lemmy's constant supply of reinforcements, the Koopas slowly but surely cleared the western reaches of their kingdom. The pale dawn of Dark Land found them finally passing the lower end of Easton, and entering the short stretch of the border between the Koopa Kingdom and Sarasaland's half of Dry Dry Desert, Birabuto. But that's when the airships ran into trouble. The humans didn't try sending troops of helicopters into Sarasaland through the treacherous desert, but they didn't want to natives trying either, and had flown in some heavy artillery to shoot anything that came that way out of the sky.

Like the destroyers' missiles, the big guns could wear down and pierce the shields of the airships, and with the element of surprise on their side, the humans managed to land a fatal blow to Iggy's ship before they were destroyed by a barrage of Bullet Bills and lasers. The blast that had finally made it through the shield had gone straight through the bow of the ship, narrowly missing the bridge above it. However, a couple of the Banzai Bills _were_ hit, and their explosions completely severed the bow and sent fire and destabilized energy blasting backwards into the rest of the ship.

Iggy would have liked to try and salvage the vessel, or at least parts of it, but the crew was panicking, people were dying and there was no time for tinkering anyway, so with a heavy heart, he made the call to abandon ship. The lower levels were awash with flames and impassable after the Banzai Bill blast, and so they used the wooden airships to evacuate the survivors through the escape hatches in the upper levels of the ship. That's when the second surprise hit: it turned out that the humans _were_ planning on attacking through the desert, and had flown an entire squadron of F-18 Super Hornets over from the aircraft carrier the night of the Dragon-Koopas' capture. They had found a hidden spot near the Birabuto border with a flat stretch of rock long enough to use as a runway and stashed the planes. Extra fuel to help them cross the desert had already been brought there by the fleet's lone C-2 cargo plane; it was also what brought the heavy artillery to the border, though it was long gone by the time the Koopas drew near. The F-18s, on the other hand, were still there.

The radar picked them up first: a group of tiny planes moving at supersonic speeds straight towards them. Iggy was still on the bridge, and knew he only had a few seconds to decide what to do: both his airship and the two rescuing his people would be helpless is they remained connected. If he had the other ships move away, they could move around and shoot back a bit better, not that Bullet Bills would be much use. His airship's lasers _would_ be useful, as the _Seven_'s had been, and some of the side and top weapons fixtures were still working, as were a few of the forcefield panels. He couldn't really fight, but protecting himself wasn't out of the question: if he landed the ship with its ruined face against a cliff, he could guard the unshielded regions and try to defend the airships with his lasers.

But then there was the fact that his ship was _on fire_. The bottom levels were unstable and so landing could easily turn into partially imploding, and if the faults reached the engine room, the energy could be destabilized. A few cracks in a few key pipes – not to mention the fires themselves – and all the safety systems wouldn't matter; it'd be the _Seven_ all over again. Iggy forced the image of Ludwig lying in the ruins of the engine, burned and covered with blood, out of his head – he had to remain in the present: the seconds before the F-18s were on top of them were rapidly ticking down.

Flipping on both the internal com system and the external loudspeakers, Iggy decided on his course of action. "Move the other airships away: send in Lakitus and Magikoopas and anyone else who can ferry people around to continue the evacuation. I'm going to activate what's left of the forcefield to give us more time to get everyone off, so they'll have to fly down and around the edge of wherever the shield extends to: it'll be green and sparky so you'll know where to go. People on my ship: continue moving outside – make it easy for the flyers to pick you up. I'll be counting on the other airships and the Roketons to keep the humans busy, but I am also rerouting the control of all the functioning lasers on _this_ ship to the bridge – it won't be precise, but hopefully it'll keep the planes away from us."

Iggy was typing as he spoke, half-expecting to be cut-off mid-sentence by the arrival of the airplanes, but he managed to finish his orders in the nick of time. The wooden airships obediently moved away and holding his breath, he turned on the forcefield: sensors indicated the majority of the ship's stern was covered, including a lot of the area underneath the lower tower, which surprised Iggy. Without the forward panels, the shield fell apart once the ship started narrowing towards the remains of the bow; the bridge was completely exposed except for the membrane shield on the glass, but either way, one shot could end it all.

"They're speeding up!" yelped the Goomba manning the radar console as Iggy slowly turned the airship towards the nearest vertical cliff he could see. It was above a particularly deep, black gorge, and Iggy wished he could have found one in which the drop wasn't _so_ far, just in case worse came to worst and his crew had to jump for it, but there was no time. If he couldn't have a forcefield protecting the airship's face, he'd use rock, and the other nearby peaks were all heavily sloped. He had a bad feeling about the gorge, but he was glad he had ignored it when six planes suddenly appeared over the mountains – before he had even reached the nearby cliff. Had he gone for one of the other mountains, he would have been a sitting duck.

The humans immediately opened fire on the Koopas, although most of the shots were directed at the fleet of functioning airships above Iggy. Roketons shot forward to meet the F-18s as the undamaged forcefield-bearing vessel launched a barrage of lasers, slowly moving forward and downward to shield its sister ship. The planes passed overhead with a sonic boom and Iggy's ship was finally facing the cliff. Activating the lasers, Iggy and his bridge crew started firing skyward as a second round of Super Hornets appeared, but they weren't perturbed and went straight for the two big airships. They knew the lower one, which was covered in people and surrounded by smaller flying creatures ducking around its failing shield, would be easy pickings.

The other airship returned fire and tried to shield its sister from the bullets, but some of the projectiles still made it past the vessel. Iggy was barely able to stay standing at the helm as the glass above him turned green and sent the sapped bullets clattering down the curved window. It was a struggle to keep looking down at the screens controlling the lasers, rather than up at the planes roaring overhead. But while Iggy managed to keep his eyes averted, the people awaiting evacuation on the hull of the ship had nothing to distract them from the death machines heading towards them, and as bullets and missiles smashed into the forcefield above, many simply leapt off the ship in panic. Their screams echoed in the black gorge as they fell to their deaths, but were ultimately droned out by the airplanes and cannons, and too scared for their own lives, the survivors on the airship forgot their fallen comrades as they scrambled towards the Lakitus and Magikoopas.

The wooden airships and Roketons were holding their own against the F-18s, but the bigger airships were faring far worse. The planes darted around like stinging flies, focusing their missile barrages on the rears of the ships – in hopes that the forcefield behind the engines was somehow weaker in order to let that energy through. That wasn't the case at all: air and pure energy went straight through the external forcefields (although, like the _Seven_, the membrane shields _were_ impervious to air), but the generators were soon feeling the strain of continuously replenishing that part of the shields. The humans were slowly bleeding them dry.

While he was protected from the planes by the cliff and the airship above him, Iggy was in trouble and he knew it. He could smell the smoke from the fires and internal sensors indicated that there were problems in the engine room: the safety systems had dealt with most of the destabilized energy, but too much energy was being lost through the faltering shields. They didn't even need to be hit by the humans: the energy was simply spilling out of the ragged edges of the incomplete shell. A few times, the humans managed to pierce the shield as well, although the majority of the bullets were taken by the Koopas swarming on the hull, and the crowd soon degenerated into a bloody, chaotic mess, the living creatures stumbling on bodies and slipping on less solid remains. The Lakitus, Magikoopas and even Paratroopas and Paragoombas were desperately trying to get people to safety, but it was impossible: the ship had been completely full of soldiers and there were simply too many. They were rioting, clawing at each other to try to be the next person flown away from the death trap, knocking each other off the edge – by accident or even on purpose, depending on the Koopa.

A few Koopas were more level-headed, and heroically remained inside to try and fight the fires and keep the engine room safe. They tinkered with the control panels to try and keep the energy under control, but it was a losing battle. As had happened before, it was a crashing plane that finally did the Koopas in: nicked by a laser as it made a pass at the engines of the airship, it wasn't able to pull back up and simply flew into what it had been shooting. If the airship had been moving forward, the Hornet may have been vaporized, but it was barely even hovering by that point, and the small amount of energy exiting the five burners did nothing to stop the F-18, just as the forcefield had failed to stop it. The entire vessel shook as the engines exploded and the forcefield disappeared without even a final flicker as the ship slipped out of the air.

Everyone screamed as gravity seemed to disappear and the ship dropped out from under them. The air was filled with flailing Koopas, Goombas, Shy Guys and a dozen other Dark Land species. The few creatures who could fly tried to grab as many people as they could, but were often seized by more than they could support and succumbed. Paratroopas could only carry one person, but were often seized by multiple pairs of hands and while some managed to break free and save only themselves, other found their wings ripped from their shells in the struggle, and fell with the rest.

The airship and its cloud of crew soon descended too deep into the gorge for the still-rising sun to reach them – the only real illumination was from the burning airship itself, suddenly joined by angry red lasers from the airship above and the three F-18s they were targeting. When they saw the damaged airship's forcefield give out, the remaining Hornets had dived as one unit: they didn't want to risk the ship recovering halfway down – they wanted to make sure it and its passengers were destroyed. Some of the other airship's marksmen had paused before shooting at the planes that pursued the other ship: they didn't want to shoot their falling people, and it took a moment for them to realize their comrades were as good as dead anyway.

The Koopas and Goombas on the bridge had all been thrown from their feet by the blast, Iggy managed to grab hold of something as the ship fell, but as he looked around for the Magikoopas charged with protecting him, the glass above him shattered in a barrage of bullets. Iggy screamed in terror as the ship lurched, hit by a missile. He was thrown into something sharp that bit into his upper leg, and then the ship's nose scraped against the cliff it had been hovering in front of and the world twisted about as the vessel rolled and pointed skyward. Lights flashed as the F-18s blasted at the airship, point-blank, and Iggy screamed again, this time in pain as something hit him in the stomach. It was much worse than the gouge in his leg – even worse than when he had fallen in the lava: whatever had hit him had was in deep, and it burned so much it felt _cold_.

The ship was still tumbling and he was thrown against the shattered edge of the window. His head spun almost as much as the hulk around him, but then one thought filtered through the pain-fueled delirium: he didn't want to die, but there was no one to save him this time. If he was going to live through this crash, he'd have to save himself.

With great effort he pulled his wand out of his hammerspace, and gripping onto it as tight as he could with both hands, he started screaming a spell at the top of his lungs. Slowly, he the ship slipped away beneath him: he was slowing down. He knew he couldn't stop himself all the way: not even Ludwig or Wendy could have managed that, but he just needed to be slow enough to survive the impact. It was close: soon the airship hit the ground beneath him, and the valley was illuminated with a bright blue flash of energy, immediately giving way an orange fireball. He wasn't sure he had slowed himself enough, but as the burning hulk and the ground raced up to meet him, he gave up on the spell and retracted into his shell at the last second. The airship was still pointed skyward, and he hit the bottom lip of the glass dome. It shattered, helping to break his fall, and he tumbled deeper into the ship, crashing through the bridge and into the hall, ricocheting between the walls and the floor of the hallway. The energy within his shell saved him, but even with his flesh protected in hammerspace, the final impact with the back wall was too much and he lost consciousness. His head and limbs slipped out of his shell and he lay in an unmoving, broken heap, surrounded by fire.

The pain helped bring him back to consciousness. Moaning, he pulled himself up, trying to ignore his spinning head as he started to climb back towards the bridge. He needed to get out of the wreck: someone would surely come down to check for survivors, but the smoke spilling past him from the bowels of the ship would probably deter even the most tenacious searcher. He pushed all other thoughts from his head as he climbed, steeling himself against the pain in his leg and gut, and ignoring the cloying smell of burning electronics and bodies alike as smoke billowed out from the bowels of the ship. But Dragon-Koopas were no stranger to smokescreens, and he could clearly see what he was doing as he picked his way towards freedom.

The smoke let up when he reached the more spacious bridge, and looking up he could make out the flashes of light in the battle that still raged above. The F-18s had resumed buzzing about the other airship: the shield flickered green and the laser blazed red. There was also an orange fireball in the sky: one of the wooden airships was falling into the gorge, by it would hit another part of the ground and so he didn't let himself get too concerned.

During his climb, he had seen a couple dead bodies; there were two more on the bridge and one was a Magikoopa, impaled on a broken rail. The other two wizards were still unaccounted for, and he hoped they were alive – that they had managed to fly free like he had. He hoped they would immediately fly down in search of survivors: the wound in his midriff was bad, he doubted he could walk on his one leg for much longer, and he was covered in smaller cuts and bruises. Some healing magic and potions would be really handy.

Climbing to the edge of the metal wall, Iggy pulled out a hammer (all the Koopalings carried a couple, just in case; Bowser had lots, although he rarely used them), and smashed away the last fragments of a glass panel in his way. He then gingerly clambered over the edge. His timing was fortuitous, for as he perched there, the airship groaned and tipped towards its starboard side, crunching against the nearby cliff at a nearly 45º angle. Iggy was glad he had decided to climb up the port side as he slid down the outside hull, although if he hadn't gotten out in time, he probably would have fallen when his wall turned into the ceiling.

The fires had started to die down, but Iggy still made a jump for it once he got near the stern, which was still hot and burning a little. He somersaulted on the ground to try and soften the landing, only to reel in pain over his stomach and then lie panting on the ground on his side. Around him were dozens of dead bodies – killed by the fall, most likely. Their bodies were contorted and eviscerated; even their faces were often smashed in, but Iggy was already in shock and the horror of the scene around him didn't quite hit home. All he really thought was that he didn't want to join them. He tried to stand, but his injured leg gave out beneath him, and he couldn't find the strength to try again. He looked down at the bloody hole in his stomach and his head spun – he was losing too much blood: he might've escaped the fires, but he was still in trouble. Pulling his eyes away from the potentially mortal wound, Iggy looked across the gorge: the wooden airship he had seen falling before was now a flaming wreck. Two other ships had been downed earlier, but flames still illuminated where they lay, and all three wrecks seemed to be surrounded by moving figures.

"Hey!" Iggy tried to call, only to sputter into a fit of coughing. Blood bubbled in his mouth, and his eyes widened behind his goggles (which had miraculously come through unscratched): exactly how many internal organs had been damaged? And what exactly had caused the damage?

Truth be told, he had a pretty good idea of what might've sliced through his thick belly scales like butter before imbedding itself deep within his young body, but he didn't want to dwell on that for now.

Iggy tried to call again, but his voice was weak. With a painful moan, he pulled his wand out of hammerspace again, shuddering with effort. Now he was really getting worried: had something destabilized his energy too? He was getting worse by the minute – he could feel it. A cold numbness was spreading through his body. With a grunt, he managed to light the tip of his wand, and using all of his strength, he held it straight above him and slowly waved it back and forth. He hoped the light from the fires at the base of the airship behind him wouldn't drown it out, but he couldn't move any farther away. As much as he tried, his legs refused to work anymore. The puddle of blood was growing around him. He didn't want to look at it. He didn't want to die.

Suddenly, the only surviving Magikoopa from his escort appeared. Like Iggy, Kay Koopa had been knocked clear of the airship after the windows had been blasted open. He instinctively summoned his broomstick and slowed himself: he knew he should have dived after the ship to see if he could rescue Iggy, but it had all happened so fast, and it seemed like second after he was clear of the chaos, it had all ended far beneath him. There was no stopping the fires in the airship – they were impregnated with raw energy – and so he merely started looking around the dead bodies littering the ground for survivors. He found one of his comrades, his head and body at a funny angle, but there was no sign of the Koopaling, alive or dead. Kay was on the far side of the wreck, next to the cliff, when Iggy finally struggled up and out, but finding nothing, he finally held his breath and plunged into the smoky interior of the airship. When the Magikoopa flew back out of the suffocating smoke, he was sure there was no one else alive, and started to fly over to one of the wooden wrecks, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw Iggy's wand.

"Your Highness!" gasped the Magikoopa as he landed next to the Koopaling.

"It worked," said Iggy, smiling with relief and letting his arm and the wand drop back down.

"I can't believe you survived, how in Koopa's name-" Key then saw the wound in Iggy's stomach and gasped.

"Yeah, it's bad," said Iggy, before succumbing to another fit of coughing. The wizard held his wand high and sent up a few flashes of spinning shapes, hoping someone in another wreck might notice and come help. But he couldn't afford to wait and see if it hard worked. Kay was by no means skilled in medicine: a green-roped Magikoopa, his specialty was fighting, but he knew enough to see that the Dragon-Koopa needed to be treated immediately, and he knew the rudimentary training he had received would be good enough for now.

The Magikoopa rolled up his sleeves and told Iggy to lie straight; the Koopaling obeyed, trying to ignore the pain.

"Can you move your legs? Can you _feel_ your legs? Tail?"

"Yes, they hurt," said Iggy, wiggling his toes to prove it to the Magikoopa.

"Okay, good. And you can use your energy, which is also good. Even so, I'm going to immobilize your back, but you have to roll over first," instructed Kay. Iggy recalled the time Bowser's shell cracked and how he had to lie in a concrete cast, as he struggled to roll onto his back, aided by the Magikoopa who made his own stone cast as soon as Iggy was in position. "I can't have you rocking around on those spikes," said Kay, materializing a block for himself to stand on. He then pulled out a vial of Revitalizing Potion (he didn't usually carry potions, but all the Magikoopas assigned to protecting the Koopalings had been given a sample of this most important liquid by Kammy Koopa) and leaned over the wound, pouring a bit in. Iggy hissed – it stung. Kay frowned. "It's not taking: there's something still in there." He put the potion away and paused with his wand and fingers poised above the wound. "I'm really sorry, Your Highness – this is going to hurt _a lot_."

Iggy squeezed his eyes shut as the wand tip started to glow, and while he tried to hold it in, he screamed in pain as whatever was lodged within him started to move. Using his other hand, Kay prodded at the ragged flesh to try and clear a path or grab the object itself, thankful that Dragon-Koopas were resilient enough for this sort of mistreatment. Iggy's eyes flew open as the Magikoopa finally withdrew his fingers and wand, and leaned back. "Give me that!" he demanded, suddenly reaching up and snatching what had hurt him from Kay's hand. His arm trembled as he brought it up closer to his face and opened his fist.

It was a piece of shrapnel – probably from between two of the window panels. It was large with jagged ends and sharp edges, but Iggy nearly sobbed with relief. In the darkness of the valley, he had been sure the blood pouring out of his stomach was black – he had been sure it was a bullet that had pierced him. He had never been happier about being wrong than he was at that moment.

-xxx-

Lemmy returned just as the last F-18s were being eliminated. The other airship had sustained some damage by the end of the battle: after Iggy's ship went down, the humans turned put of their efforts towards making the other one join it. A few missiles got through the forcefield, which simply couldn't keep up with the amount of energy it needed to reflect so many projectiles. And by focusing on the area around the engines, the humans ensured that the few shots they _did_ get through made a mark. They wrecked a few forcefield panels, a battery of lasers, some starboard emergency vents and two of the five engines, though the safety systems (using the port-side vents) kept them from exploding. After the battle, the engineers soon confirmed that the airship wasn't in danger of exploding later, or simply losing power like Iggy's: the ship simply couldn't go as fast and would be susceptible from any more attacks from behind. So, while it was unlikely that the airship would have to weather another vicious assault (it was doubtful that _two_ squadrons of F-18 had been hiding in the region), it still brought everyone comfort to know that backup was on the way.

Having finally cleared the entire northern realm of Dark Land overnight, Wendy and Junior were already heading south with an army of Magikoopas as fast as they could. Lemmy refused to move forward until they joined his group: while Iggy had made a full recovery thanks to the Magikoopas and their spells and potions, like Larry, he wasn't really in any fit state to command the fleet just yet. He was slowly recovering from the trauma, but he was oddly quiet, and kept fiddling with the shrapnel that had been pulled from his belly, and which he refused to get rid of. He insisted on wearing the same old labcoat too, saying that the bloodstains were an even greater testament to his grit in the face of human brutality than the missing sleeves. Lemmy thought it was just unsanitary, but he knew that now wasn't the time to try and reason with his brother. He also knew Bowselta wasn't happy about this latest snag, but it wasn't just his aversion to fighting that was making him hold back. The Koopas had lost nearly four shiploads of soldiers to the twelve F-18s, and if they wanted to continue clearing the border, they'd need backup soldiers.

But Lemmy couldn't go get those backups, as it would leave the attacking party unprotected; even if the took the weakened airship to clear the surrounding villages, he was paranoid that another squadron of F-18s would come and actually manage to kill his brother (who refused to leave the front line). It was a miracle that Iggy survived the crash – or at the very least, _really, really, really good luck_. Either way, Lemmy didn't want to put it to the test again, and Bowselta eventually relented. She hated that both the east coast and the western border had been delayed at all, but not only because of the time issue.

In the west, Mario was right on schedule: he had taken Toad Town shortly after midnight, and while King Peasley continued west towards the Beanbean Kingdom, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Wario and Waluigi were fanning out to the south of the Mushroom Kingdom capital. Their front would then slowly creep back east, and all the while, the Sarasaland forces occupying the area they had cleared on their way to Toad Town would put pressure on the humans from the north. The Koopas were supposed to do the same heading west, and while it didn't look like that was going to work out exactly as planned, Bowselta knew she could whip something up. At the very worst, Mario and the others would free more of the Mushroom Kingdom themselves while the Koopas played catch-up, and while having the humans pull up her peoples' slack was embarrassing and annoying, it wasn't the end of the world.

No, what really rattled Bowselta was that both delays had nearly taken one of her children, and the war was far from over. Most people who had heard about the Koopalings' narrow escaped figured it had something to do with Koopa and her power, but Bowselta knew that wasn't it. Koopa was gone, and the current Koopa Queen had no cosmic powers to speak of – no one did, although she couldn't admit that publicly. At least, not yet. But in private, like Lemmy, she was worried that sooner or later, her family's luck was going to run out – and to her, that _would_ be the end of the world.


	22. Losing the Keep

Chapter 21: Losing the Keep

The news wasn't all bad: Roy and Bowser were making steady progress in the south, and before noon, they had joined up and were approaching Bowser's Keep. The original plan was that all the Koopalings would have made the rendezvous, so that once they recaptured the Keep, they would radiate out into the Mushroom Kingdom at the same time, driving the humans before them. But that wasn't possible anymore: Iggy, Lemmy, Wendy and Junior were still fighting along the border of Birabuto, and Morton, Ludwig and Larry had just lost another airship to a destroyer that had been guarding Burt's Cove.

Bowselta knew it could be worse: she _had_ managed to alter the plan early that morning, and while there were not three waves of Koopas instead of one, she was confident that it could still work. After recapturing the Keep, Bowser and Roy would continue going south along the Mushroom Kingdom's coast, which would soon curve westwards. The Koopalings in the west of Dark Land only had a bit farther to go before they alongside the part of Dry Dery Desert that was within the Mushroom Kingdom, rather than Birabuto. It should be smoother sailing from then on, and when they get past the bottom edge of the desert, they would leave the border altogether and fan out over Desert Land and northern Grassland.

Once they were done with the coast, the other three Koopalings would zip across the lands already cleared by Bowser and Roy, spread out, and subdue any humans in the small stretch of the southwestern border not yet covered by any of the other Koopas. They would then make short work of the narrow slip of land south of Iggy's group's tracks, and north of Roy and Bowser's area, and in all likelihood, catch up the other two groups in no time – if that would even be necessary, of course. There was still a very real chance that Mario's group could rendezvous with Bowser and Roy shortly before Iggy's group crossed the Mushroom Kingdom border, although Morton, Larry and Ludwig were making good time and would at least see some action outside of Dark Land.

Like Bowselta, Bowser hoped Mario wouldn't end up hogging the eastern half of the Mushroom Kingdom – not only because he would look bad, but because he was looking forward to taking that final stretch himself. Not counting Luigi and Daisy's wedding, it had been so long since he had been in the Mushroom Kingdom. After Bowselta gave up invading the country, Peach had tried to invite the Koopas over for sports and kart racing a few times, but the Koopa Queen had always refused and after a while, the Mushroom Princess stopped asking. While he knew better than to mention it to his wife, Bowser missed Peach, and he missed her pretty, sunny, grassy kingdom too. Part of him still longed to possess it for himself, and he couldn't wait to cross the border with a fleet of airships once more – especially since he wouldn't have to face Mario and certain defeat at the end of _this_ journey.

He was also looking forward to fighting for something other than his own backyard: as they approached the Keep, he thought back to the last time it was captured by Smithy – that had been a royal pain in the rump. He loved fighting, and he loved all the praise his people were heaping upon him for liberating them, but there was just something about laying waste to _someone else's_ property that had always made the experience _more_ enjoyable in the past…

Plus, the going would hopefully be a bit easier after he reached Peach's gentle, rolling hills – as much as he loved the mountains of Dark Land, they made fighting the humans down in the caves and valleys a bit difficult for the big airships. He even heard there wasn't as many humans in the Mushroom Kingdom: its denizens had put up much less of a fight than the Koopas, after all. If it were just Bowser fighting, the difficulty level wouldn't really be a concern, but like Bowselta, he was getting tired of his children almost dying. When he had to go take over Ludwig's ships, he was worried Roy would get to the Keep before him and bite off more than he could chew. With that in mind, he pushed his flight as fast as he could to try and cover both Ludwig's area and the small region he was originally going to cover on his own. Roy's region was only a little smaller, but knowing how important it was for his father to be on the front lines, he went slow, allowing Bowser to catch up. The Koopa King didn't know this, however, and believing it was the speed and strength of his group alone that brought him that far that fast, he confidently lead the amalgamated group over the last few volcanoes of Dark Land towards his last castle – and the Mushroom Kingdom beyond it.

Unfortunately, Bowser's confidence was misplaced, for taking back his Keep soon proved to be much easier said than done. The castle was perched atop a spiked mountain and could only be reached by bridge, or by flying straight up to it, but the humans had made both of those impossible: the bridge had been destroyed and the airspace was treacherous. Unlike the other castles, these humans were using the Keep's defenses in addition to the armaments they had brought with them, and a barrage of Bullet Bills mixed with bullets and heavier artillery kept the airships at bay.

At first the Koopas had tried to fly their airships close enough to start dropping troops a couple times, but the sheer amount of artillery being emptied onto their shields ate away enough energy to let a few of the larger human shots through. Nothing was seriously damaged, but after seeing what had happened to Larry and Iggy's flights, the Koopas didn't want to push their luck and fell back. The wooden airships and the flying troops didn't even try to get close, and with the three forcefield-bearing airships, they all waited in a ring around the Keep for some sort of signal from their king.

But he had no idea what to do.

"Why don't they just give up already?" Bowser growled in frustration after a few minutes of futile brainstorming with Kammy.

"Didn't Her Percipientness say it was because they don't want their sacrifices to be in vain by going home empty-handed? If they give up now after fighting so hard up until now, they'd look kinda stupid, don't you think, Your Been-There-Done-That-Ness?"

"'_Been-There-Done-That-Ness_'?" snorted Bowser. "Really? That's the best you can do?"

"I was locked in a dungeon for the past two weeks – give me a break!"

"But that should have given you a lot of time to think of creative names," argued Bowser.

"My titles are improvised on the spot, I'll have you know," huffed Kammy, before adding quietly. "And besides, even if they were premeditated, I wouldn't have thought I'd ever get a chance to use them anyway – thinking of things to say, when I knew I couldn't ever say them, would have been-"

"Hey, don't worry about it," interrupted Bowser, slapping Kammy on the back so hard she almost fell over forward. "Oops, sorry."

"It's okay, Your Thewyness," grinned Kammy, cheering right back up.

"That's more like it," said Bowser. "Whatever it means. Anyway, I wasn't talking about the humans in general, I was talking about these specific humans – the guys loitering in my Keep!"

"They're probably following orders," shrugged Kammy.

"Pretty _stupid_ orders," Bowser frowned. "At least I knew when I was beaten and let my troops retreat."

Kammy smirked: she could count the number of times Bowser ordered his retreats on her fingers – being beaten usually meant being completely incapacitated by Mario (and Luigi), leaving Bowselta, Kamek or Kammy herself to make the call. Had the roles been reversed, she knew Bowser would have also ordered his troops to hold down the fort, even against impossible odds like the ones facing the humans. But unlike those humans, the Koopas solders would probably have surrendered: when Smithy captured the Southern Keep, many of Bowser's troop fled. But Kammy couldn't blame them, given that those who stayed and tried to fight (like her brother) were either killed or fell victim to mind-control.

Bowser growled in frustration: he had been wracking his brain for some plan of attack, and all he could think of was a barrage, but he didn't particularly relish the thought of destroying his Keep. If there was one thing Bowser got sentimental about, it was his castles. Airships came and went, but the stone citadels were always a constant in his life; they were his homes – where his children grew up. They were also a symbol of his power, his dominance over the land: no one built castles like the Koopas, perched atop bald mountains and surrounded by lava… Bowser had gone through so much to get his Southern Keep back after Smithy's invasion, not to mention all the work put into restoring the damage done by Exor.

Bowser's mood darkened as he remembered the similar amount of work that would be necessary to fix the main Koopa Castle: the extent of the damage the humans had inflicted upon it was appalling, and while a few areas remained relatively intact, it was still going to be uninhabitable for months. Bowser didn't want to spend all that time waiting in the Northern Fortress. He had seen quite enough of those lifeless mountain ranges lately; he wanted to be in the south, by the lava, by his adoring people (even if they did _revere_ Bowselta more than him now).

He just hoped they'd still appreciate his bravery and might even after this latest little snag: hovering around wondering what to do was _not_ how he envisioned his grand finale in the liberation of Dark Land. "Your Cogitatingness? Roy's calling on the Crystal Ball," said Kammy, snapping Bowser out of his thoughts. He looked down into the Crystal Ball she held up.

"I tink we gotta blow da roof off da Keep," said Roy.

Bowser shook his head. "No way – I'm not trashing a perfectly good castle."

"But it _ain't_ perfectly good: it's filled wid humans."

"Once the humans are _gone_, it'll be perfectly good."

"But how are we gonna make it human-free?"

Bowser scowled. "We can… Uhhh, do what we did with the last castle: fly up close and blast down a door or two and then all the Koopas rush in, and-"

"We already _tried_ dat: we _can't_ fly up close."

"Well, can _you_ think of anything better we can try?"

"Yeah: dey fiya deir guns wheneva we get close enough, so I say we fight fiya wid fiya and start using _our_ guns: da lasers can't reach dat far, but da Banzai Bills sure can. So can da Bullet Bills – aldough da humans apparently don't know dat yet, oddawise dey'd still be shootin' at us."

"But that's still the blowing-up-the-castle plan, and I just said we're _not doing that_," growled Bowser.

"We have no choice, Pa," insisted Roy.

"He's right, Your Dolorousness," said Kammy apologetically. "We can't afford to lose any more airships by trying to fly in close, and we're running a little late: we have to do _something_."

"Then we'll do something _else_," said Bowser, stomping his foot for emphasis.

"Dere _is_ nottin' else," insisted Roy. He knew he was right, and Bowser did too – that's why he was stomping around.

Bowser growled in anger, a small lick of fire escaping his bared teeth. He looked over his shoulder, out the window towards the Keep, wishing it could have been like the Northern Fortress – with the prisoners inside having already done a lot of the work for him and the Koopalings. His eyes suddenly widened and he snapped back to the Crystal Ball. "We can't blow up the castle because there's Koopas in there too: they've got prisoners, remember?"

"I rememba – dat's why I said we gotta blow da _roof _off. Da dungeons are in da very bottom o' da castle, and most o' da weapons fiya is coming from da top – and I know for a fact dat's where most o' our Bullet Bill Cannons are set up ta begin wid. We just gotta blast enough o' da ammunitions and windows and 'tings in orda ta get some ships in close and start sending troops in – like _you_ want."

Kammy had to struggle to suppress her grin: Roy wasn't the smartest knife in the drawer, but he sure knew how to get his way. While she didn't really like comparing the two, Kammy knew Bowser was a bit like the invading humans: he wouldn't want to back down and accept Roy's plan after making such a fuss. But by saying Bowser'd still get what he wants, Roy didn't seem to be challenging his father any more – Bowser could accept his plan without 'losing'.

Bowser was still a little uneasy: despite the modern reconstruction work, the Keep was still an old building, and he had a bad feeling that even aiming high wouldn't be enough to spare the castle. It probably _wouldn't_ collapse on top of the prisoners, however, and Bowser doubted he could think of a better plan. He also knew that if he took too long trying to figure something out, he'd look bad: he'd look stupid and stubborn, and Bowselta would probably be calling soon to see what's going on and why there was a delay… As much as Bowser didn't want to follow his own son's orders, being chewed out by his wife and _then_ having to go with Roy's plan was worse – and she _would_ make him go with Roy's plan: there was, truly, nothing else they could do.

But damned if Bowser was going to blatantly admit it. "Okay, how about this: all the airships barrage the castle, but then I fly _my_ ship in and drop off some troops using the barrage as cover – and you better have destroyed enough guns by then. If I get shot down because your crummy barrage plan didn't work, heads will roll, you got that?"

"Got it, Pops – but you'll hafta gimme a couple minutes head start, or I can't guarantee there'll be a hole in deir defenses big enough for dat whole airship o' yours."

"I'll give you as much time as I'll give you!" snarled Bowser, before snatching the Crystal Ball out of Kammy's hand, making it go dark immediately. He grinned as he handed it back to her. "That'll show him who's boss."

"Oh, yes indeed, Your Delusoryness," said Kammy, as Bowser marched over to the helm.

"Open a com channel to the fleet: I'm gonna tell them all to fire-at-will at the top of the Keep!" announced Bowser. He then grabbed a hold of the steering wheel. "And when we zoom in to drop off the troops, _I'm_ driving." But his cocky grin faded as he looked forward through the window at his poor Keep. Using the com channel wasn't secure like the Crystal Balls, but Bowser wanted the humans to hear they were about to be invaded, and he told the fleet to even wait for a ten second countdown before firing to give his opponents one last chance to surrender. They probably wouldn't, though, and Bowser's expectantly rested his finger on the "fire" button for his own ship's Banzai Bill cannon: the heavy armaments would be the first to launch, followed by the faster Bullet Bills, which would hopefully provide cover and let their bigger cousins hit their marks. Bowser's airship was all lined up: its mark was one of the two central turrets, and as the countdown neared the end, Bowser sighed, and then he spoke:

"_Like thunder in the  
night my awesome power will  
awaken their fears._"

Only Kammy heard what he said: he had spoken too low – not quite in a whisper, but still quiet enough to keep it personal. He did many things to garner attention, but poetry was not one of them. He saw Kammy look up at him out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored her, and without taking his eyes off his Keep, he pushed the "fire" button. He continued to watch, as bullets from both the ships and the castle filled the air, and as fireballs erupted in the towers of his Keep.

-x-

The humans refused to surrender. When the upper levels were lost, they started to shoot their hand-held weapons from the windows at Bowser's airship. He couldn't get his soldiers safely to the door without reducing the entire front facade of his Keep to rubble. Inside, the going was just as frustrating: the humans had filled the hallways with bombs, using their own explosives to cause chain reactions with Bob-Ombs and take entire stairwells and floors out. Doing so hampered the Koopas' progress, but it also trapped the humans in the upper and lower levels, and Bowser decided that they must simply be doing it for spite. They knew they were going to die, so they were taking his precious Keep with them.

Fearing they were hoping to take more than just a building, Kammy stuck to Bowser like glue and had Magikoopas lead the way. The Koopa King had argued at first: he wanted to lead the charge, but Kammy told him the Magikoopas might be able to diffuse bombs before they went off and wrecked the passages ahead, and so Bowser relented. A couple times the wizards _did_ manage to reduce the damage by shielding some of the Bob-Ombs, but they were never able to completely prevent the blasts and a couple times, they were lucky to get out alive. Kammy's eyes were always on the ceiling, afraid the latest blast would knock deadly pieces of rubble free. Flying troops were clearing the upper levels to minimize the amount of weight being put on the castle above the ground troops' heads; the surrounding airships had stopped firing, but the humans' bombs were destabilizing enough to make Kammy anxious. Going deeper into the Keep filled her with dread, but they had to go: they had to stop the humans and free the prisoners.

The ground shook with an explosion and Bowser growled. "Why are we going so slowly? There'll be nothing left by the time we finish at this rate!"

Kammy clutched at his arm with her free hand as he tried to brush forwards and take the lead, squeezing her broomstick with her legs to keep her balance. "Wait! Your Rashness, we have to be careful – they're checking for bombs, and making sure we don't get ambushed!"

"They should do that _faster_!" snarled Bowser. Another 'boom' echoed down from the upper levels, followed by more shaking. Small bits of stone were falling from the walls, and Kammy's grip on her wand tightened.

"I want to get out of here as fast as we can too, but I won't let you go rushing ahead and having your head blown off, Your Irreplaceablenss. Besides, we're almost at the dung-"

She was cut off by another explosion of sound, but this time it wasn't a bomb detonating high above, but a sudden barrage of gunfire ahead. Bowser broke free of Kammy's grip and raced around the corner, where the Magikoopas s were barely holding their position against the firing squad of humans blocking the dungeon. Their forcefields deflected the bullets, but a grenade thrown by the humans blasted through right as Bowser reached the scene. The Magikooopas howled in pain, but Bowser countered the flames with his own. Roaring in fury, he charged forward, with Kammy flying at his shoulder, casting a protective spell. The humans had also been hurt by their grenade, however, and before they could make a single move, Bowser was on top, blasting them with his flames and lashing out with his fists in a blind range until every human was dead.

Only then, as he stood panting in the black, silent dungeon, did he smell the blood. Squinting through the settling dust into the cells before him, he felt his hatred of the humans boil even hotter than before. They hadn't only taken his Keep: they had taken every Koopa, Goomba and Shy Guy who had been inside it. It was the smallest of the three castles and so it had the smallest staff, but the number of dead soldiers lying behind the bars was still too high. He wondered how long they had been dead as he walked up to the nearest cell –were they killed when they had tried to overthrow the humans after Koopa's speech? Did the humans kill them out of desperation when Bowser's fleet arrived, fearing a battle on two fronts as in the Northern Fortress? Had the humans planned to murder them from the beginning? Did it even matter? No, it didn't. All that mattered was that they were dead. Even Mario wouldn't have sunk this low: he only killed the soldiers who were still in his way.

Behind Bowser, the Koopas that had followed him to the dungeons soundlessly filed into the room to sow their solidarity for their fallen brethren, but the silence did not last long.

"How could they do this?" Bowser growled, seizing the bars of the cage, unable to keep his anger in any longer. "HOW COULD THEY DO THIS? Those bastards! Those murderers!" Licks of fire escaped his jaws and electricity danced along the metal bars as his rage overflowed. "My poor minions – death was too good for the monsters that killed you! I'd kill them a _thousand_ times! I'd pound their heads in! I'd burn them! I'd roast them alive and squish them to pulp and burn the pulp and-" Suddenly, the light from his flames reflecting off something shiny among the bodies caught Bowser's eye: a Bob-omb. Taking a pause from his ranting, Bowser blew a proper flare and looked around the cell: he could see more Bob-ombs, mostly nestled next to the weight-bearing walls. Whether they were inanimate Bob-ombs like in the corridors, or dead Bob-ombs didn't matter: they'd be equally explosive.

As soon as the king had fallen silent, Kammy darted to his side to see what was the matter, and when she followed his gaze into the illuminated cell, she gasped. "Oh Koopa, it's a trap!"

"RUN!" bellowed Bowser, turning and charging at the door. Bewildered Koopas automatically parted to let him pass, not understanding his sudden mood swing.

"The cells are filled with bombs – RUN!" shrieked Kammy as she flew after the king.

"Bombs?" "Trap?" "Bombs!" "Run!" "RUN!" as realization dawned on them, the Koopas turned to follow their king, hollering in terror.

As Bowser led the way, he hoped he and Kammy were wrong. After all, he hadn't seen any timers attached to the bombs, or heard any beeping or countdowns or anything, but still, he had a horrible feeling in his gut. He had just reached the first stairwell when he was proven right and an explosion echoed through the halls behind his troops. They screamed in fear, but the castle wasn't coming down yet. The steps had been crumbled by bombs on their way down, but Bowser scaled the uneven slope in two bounds, using his magic to increase his jumping ability. The Koopas behind him scrambled up the loose rocks; only the Magikoopas could keep pace with their king, but all but Kammy paused at the stairs and used to spells to help their earthbound cousins up the difficult terrain. Bowser hated to be seen fleeing before his troops, but his life was more important than anything else at the moment, not even his pride, and there was nothing he could do anyway.

Another explosion rocked the bowels of the castle, followed by another and another in rapid succession: there was a chain reaction in the dungeons. While the main foundation hadn't been taken out, the new explosions were the straw that broke the camel's back: the Keep had sustained too much damage, and cracks began creeping up the walls and floors and ceilings. When Bowser vaulted up another ruined stairwell, the landing gave out under his feet, and if it hadn't been for a quick levitation spell from Kammy, he would have been sent tumbling down to the bottom level. The stairs should have continued all the way up to the ground floor, but the humans had destroyed them when the Koopas attacked, and so they had used the auxiliary stairs placed randomly around the castle to get to the lower levels. Bowser had figured he could jump his way up from landing to landing, but it was clear that that wasn't going to work: the maze of hallways and auxiliary stairs were his only option after-all.

The entire Keep was shacking. Rocks were falling all the way down the stairs from the higher levels; the pieces of stairwell that hadn't already been felled by bombs were tumbling down, and even the walls were crumbling. "I can't levitate you up this way!" yelled Kammy, setting Bowser back down behind the landing.

"No duh!" he barked, before looking down at the troops that had reached the landing below. "GO BACK THE WAY WE CAME!" He then turned and continued on his own way. "Idiots! Why did they even follow me? As if they could keep up with a Dragon-Koopa?" muttered Bowser as he charged towards the second stairwell. Kammy knew they could have easily kept pace – while Bowser was no turtle, and when his draconian blood was spiked with adrenaline he really could book it, but in a pinch, Koopa Troopas weren't slow either, and Hammer Bros. were just as good at jumping. But she kept her remark to herself: now was not the time to argue.

The hallway was falling apart: stones fell from the ceiling and walls were buckling, sending rubble cascading down onto the king and his advisor, who deflected them as best she could with spells. Bowser used his fire to blast falling stones before him, but there was too much debris to jump through, and so he picked his way up the final flight of stairs, angrily punching at the tumbling boulders. They were out of the basement, but there would be no escaping the castle: time was up and the floors above them were giving out.

Kammy screamed, holding her wand high as the ceiling collapsed and bounders fell towards them, even though she knew the forcefield wouldn't be enough to stop them. Suddenly she felt herself snatched off her broom by a large scaly hand; her knees hit the ground hard, but she still kept her wand arm raised, poking out from underneath Bowser. The Near-Immortal King of the Koopa's body completely shielded his advisor; his head was also protected under his hunched shoulders: only his shell was exposed to the boulders that fell towards them. His arms and legs were planted firmly in the ground to brace against the weight of the rocks that hit his carapace, knowing full well that if the floor gave way, there was nothing he could do. He would survive, as he always had when castles collapsed, but Magikoopas had sacrificed the ability to retreat within their shells in favour of other uses for hammerspace, and so Kammy would almost certainly die.

Fortunately, the ground floor of the castle was thicker than the other levels, and falling rocks were all that threatened the two huddled Koopas. Kammy's forcefield alone could not have deflected the boulders, but she knew Bowser's shell was a good enough shield against the small rocks, and so she changed her tactic, and sent up a spell that would simply break anything that fell towards them. The spell prevented any large boulders from completely crushing them and knocked much of the blasted rubble away, and Bowser weathered anything that hit him, but the blows sent painful jolts through his limbs and he was deafened and choking on all the dust. It seemed like an eternity before the world was finally still again, and by then, they were completely buried alive in the rubble.

-x-

Roy wasn't scared easily, but when he realized the Southern Keep was coming down, he was gripped with an iciness that he would never forget. His father was in there somewhere, and dozens of Koopa Troop members with him, and if they died it would be his fault because it was _his_ idea to barrage the castle. Kammy had reported that the humans were detonating bombs inside, and he had a feeling that was the main reason for the collapse, but he still contributed to the sorry state of the architecture. But worst of all, he was outside – safe and sound and powerless to help the people inside. He watched as the flying troops who had been clearing the upper levels appeared, frantically diving through the windows and into the open air.

The only good thing that came to Roy's mind was that the humans were dead and there was no one to shoot the fleeing Koopas through the windows, but it was a cold comfort as the first tower gave way, followed by another, and then another. A couple spires fell sideways and careened down the sides of the mountain the Keep was built upon, but the center of the castle imploded, and Roy's father was beneath it. In the end, about a third of the castle still remained standing, but most of it was rubble. Bowser's airship flew in close and people spilled off its bow and started digging in the debris, while flying members of the troop flew down the hole near the center of the mess, which Roy knew was the main stairwell. Roy's own airship hovered nearby, close enough for Roy too see what was going on. The wooden airships and the third forcefield-bearing vessel had already moved on and were clearing the nearby Mushroom Kingdom villages: as soon as the barrage ended, they weren't needed at the Keep.

At this point, Roy wasn't needed either, but he couldn't leave. He saw that survivors were being brought up from the lower levels, but no Bowser. Yet. His father was alive: he had survived castle collapses before. Why was he even scared? Why did he even need to see it with his own two eyes? Roy shook his head – he was being silly, but that didn't matter right now. He didn't look away until he saw Bowser blast his way out of a large pile of rubble near the back of the castle and unceremoniously dump the equally vivacious Kammy Koopa out of his arms. Roy wasn't surprised Bowser had saved the old witch: the Koopaling were cut from the same cloth as his father – despite how gruff they seemed on the outside, they were very protective of the people they cared about.

Still, Roy hid his emotions well. His sigh of relief at seeing his father and Kammy alive was inaudible, and only the corners of his mouth curved into a smile as he turned away from the ruined keep and told the pilot to head south across the border. They would have to hurry if they wanted to stay on schedule after this latest little incident.

-xxx-

The loss of the Keep and all its inhabitants put Bowser in a foul mood. Many of the guards that had accompanied him and Kammy down to the dungeons had made it through alive (the castle above didn't break through to the lower levels, and while most of the basement had broken apart as well, there wasn't as much crushing rubble as they thought there would be), but that didn't cheer him up. Nor did the fact that all the humans in the surrounding area surrendered without fuss as soon as they saw that the Koopas were willing to destroy their own Keep – after that, there was no telling what they'd do to strongholds owned by their Mushroom enemies.

Of course, many of the folks near Bowser's Keep didn't consider them to be his enemies at all: he had helped Mario save the region from Smithy eleven years ago. A few of the leaders tried to chat with him as he passed through to ensure the surrendering humans were secure with his own two eyes, but Bowser couldn't care less: he could even remember most of them by name or face. When he visited Nimbus Land, Prince Mallow (who Bowser _did_ remember) even tried to give his condolences for the lost Keep that he knew Bowser had adored so much, but the Koopa King simply brushed it off and wondered why he even bothered leaving the airship. It wasn't until he had left the easternmost corner of the Mushroom Kingdom that he started to take real notice of the people around him.

It wasn't just old acquaintances that were happy to see the Koopas: it was _everyone_. Evidently, General Powell finally gave the order to retreat, because the villages that Bowser came upon were free of humans. The Toads, or whatever species happened to live there, were all in the streets, jumping and cheering as the airships came into view. They all had the same story: the soldiers left through the Warp Pipes that were heading west. On the coast, Roy's group (which had left the area south of Bowser's Keep almost immediately and had a large head start) also encountered that story. They also had reports of humans departing on helicopters, and a few towns with decent ports and large Warp Pipe hubs had also seen landing craft loaded up with as many men as they could carry.

Eager to try and head off some of the retreating humans – and limit the number of soldiers who would be involved when the humans inevitably made a final attempt to reclaim the continent – Roy urged his airships down the coast as fast as he could. He came close a couple times, but the landing craft were always too far out at sea, and guarded by at least one destroyer. Roy was no fool: he knew better than to pick a fight a destroyer with only his two airships, and continued on, leaving some wooden airships behind to make sure the humans didn't change their minds about retreating and turn around.

Inland, Bowser also hurried across the country in hot pursuit of the humans at first, but he soon realized it was futile as long as they had Warp Pipes, and decided to take his time instead. He'd be meeting up with the Mushroom and Sarasaland forces that were coming over from the west before nightfall, and he didn't particularly want to hasten his rendezvous with Mario. So he decided to savour the final, easy stretch of the invasion – and his crew appreciated it. It had been a grueling day-and-a-half; those that were with the Koopa Troop in the old days compared it to the old, blitzkrieg clashes with Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom. They were making progress as fast as Mario did, using airships to cross the same lands he had covered in leaps and bounds with the Warp Pipes.

An even better comparison was with the one time Bowser had the Koopalings use airships to sweep over eastern and central Mushroom Kingdom. It was the expanse west of the area near the Keep and Nimbus Land, but east of Rogueport, extending only to the Sky Land mountain range that divided the Mushroom Kingdom in half. To the west of the mountains, the kingdom was one big unified expanse of grass and trees, but the part Bowser took over was cut into smaller lands, like how Sarasaland was split between four kingdoms. Grassland was the easternmost, with the Dry Dry Desert, a.k.a. Desert Land, stretching down beside it, and then came Seaside and the mountains. There were a few island nations too, but this time around, the Koopas would worry about them later, once they set up a defensive line of airships along the mainland's coastline. Right now, it was too dangerous for Bowser and Roy to risk sending airships out to sea, lest destroyers lurked in ambush.

Bowser was just leaving Grassland when Roy met the front of Mushroominas coming eastwards. He had just entered Seaside by that point, and had barely missed an entire fleet of helicopters departing one of the coastal towns. He could see the amphibious assault ship that spawned them out in the archipelago, but the ship was as big as a destroyer and its aircraft carrier-like deck was covered in missile-laden helicopters. Attacking it would be even more disastrous than attacking a destroyer, so with a hint of frustration, Roy merely hovered above the shore, watching the humans slink away while the townsfolk greeted the Mushroom Kingdom forces below.

Bowser sighed when Roy had his Magikoopa crystal-gazer call Kammy and tell her that the Mushroom Kingdom's forces were on their way. By her reckoning, they'd meet up with Mario about an hour after Roy did, right on schedule: it was nearly sunset. Ludwig, Morton and Larry would probably be due north of Bowser by that point. Iggy, Wendy, Junior and Lemmy were barely clear of Dark Land – there was no chance that they'd make it to the front, so their siblings spread out to close the distance between them and Bowser. They didn't need to be as meticulous as they were in Dark Land when it came to scouring the countryside for humans: it was pretty clear that they were all gone, and the gesture was more for show than anything else. The staggered and sparsely-shipped Koopan front wasn't as impressive as the wave of Mushroomians headed towards them, but all things considered, Bowselta thought they had done okay.

So did Bowser, although he felt a slight twinge of sadness when he heard Kammy's forecast. He was getting a bit fond of the hero's welcome he got wherever he went: it was a huge change from every other time he flew airships over the Mushroom Kingdom – especially that first time, where he was with the Koopalings. Then, people had screamed and cowered or tried to fight and were cursed for their troubles, but now, they cheered and waved and danced in the streets.

He had always wanted to be the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, ever since he was small and Kamek had told him about Morton's own dreams, conditioning the child to carry on the legacy. After a while, he wanted to _outdo_ Morton, not just carry his torch, but after Bowselta disappeared and Bowser found himself falling for Peach, he not only wanted to possess her kingdom, but to be _accepted_ – by them, and by her. When Bowselta came back and they _did_ take over, the people weren't too thrilled, and neither was Peach. While all his love was for his wife once more, he still cared for the princess as a friend and wanted her to be happy, and that would only happen if her people were happy. It wasn't a hollow victory – Bowser was thoroughly ecstatic about the takeover – but there was certainly a fly in the ointment, and the Koopa King could never quite ignore it.

After the Marios were brought back from Earth and the fighting became more furious and fruitless, things returned to the simple way they were before: all Bowser cared about was his wife, and trying to conquer the land she wanted as much as he did with any means possible. Deep down, he knew that even if they won again, he'd be stuck with an unhappy Peach once more, but the painful, frustrating losses soon made him forget that life wouldn't automatically be perfect when he and Bowselta won.

_If_ they won.

Their lust for power cooled after encountering the Morton from the Mirror, but Bowser still dreamt of the land south of the border sometimes, and here he was – and being _cheered on_ at that! Despite all his trashed castles and bloody losses, Bowser felt like a winner – for once in his life, the Koopas were the winning side. Sure, Bowser personally had experienced victories many times, but they were short-lived ones before Mario came crashing down on him, or they came about because he was working _with_ Mario, or they were just small little incidents here and there that everyone soon forgot anyway. But this was different: it was Queen Koopa who saved everyone, and it was his family who led the planning, and his technology that stood a chance against the humans'. This time, he wasn't just blowing hot air when he considered Mario and the others as helping him and the Koopa Troop, and not the other way around, and people recognized this.

By a stroke of luck, the next settlement ahead was the capital of Desert Land (or Dry Dry Desert, or Desert Hill – Bowser could never remember its proper name), which the Koopa King thought would be a fitting end to his triumphant taking of the Mushroom Kingdom (or at least, part of it). Knowing that this was his last chance to soak up the kudos, Bowser stood proudly on the bridge and looked down at the people – many of whom were Koopas, he noticed. Then he noticed something else: they were waving black flags. "Kinda a weird colour for a celebration," he observed.

"Hmm?" said Kammy.

"They're waving black flags," said Bowser.

"It'd the Koopa Kingdom flag – black with your emblem in red. I've seen some of the even older standard too, every now and then – the white and green one."

"You what? Wait, it's _what_?" Bowser dashed to the nearest observation panel and zoomed in on some of the revelers below: sure enough, they were waving his flag – crude, handpainted ones, but still Koopan. "But- but why-"

"They're grateful to us, Your Stupefiedness."

"_I know that_, dust-for-brains, I was asking why no one told me they were waving our flag!" snarled Bowser.

"I thought you would have noticed on your own," said Kammy lamely.

"Well you were wrong!" said Bowser, stomping over to the communications panel.

"What are you doing, Your Irkedness?"

"I'm calling Bowselta – I want her to know about this."

"To know that I didn't tell you about the flags – that's hardly the sorta thing you should be broadcasting on-"

"Be quiet! Of course I'm not calling about _you_."

"I doubt she'll care about the flags-"

"STOP TALKING!"

"What's wrong?" Bowselta's face appeared on the console.

"Nothing's wrong – it's great actually, we just took the capital of Dry Dry Desert Land, or whatever it's called, by storm," said Bowser with a grin, completely forgetting about Kammy. "Not a human in sight."

"Same as all the other Mushroom Kingdom settlements by this point," said an unimpressed Bowselta, who had been kept up-to-date by the crystal gazers with the Koopalings. "Why are you using the radio? It's not secure."

"That's okay: I don't care if everyone hears, but I just had to tell you face-to-face, without going through the Magikoopas."

"But the Magikoopas are right here anyway," said Bowselta, gesturing to the wizards who were with her, but standing offscreen. Her gesture reminded Bowser of Kammy, and he turned to find her peeking at the screen at his elbow.

"Get outta here!" he growled, blocking her view with his arm.

"I don't mind them seeing everything, and besides, using the radio means a lot more people might be listening, so it's not going to work for a private conversation at all."

"But this _isn't_ a private conversation."

"Then why not use the Crystal Balls?"

"Because I want to use the radio – to have you see me on the big screen in our castle!" grinned Bowser.

"Why?" Bowselta cocked her eyebrow disapprovingly.

"Because- oh, just go with me on this," said Bowser earnestly.

Bowselta's expression softened when she saw the look on Bowser's face: he looked so happy. "Fine, but I don't have all day: what's this about?"

"It's about how great it is to finally win!"

"The war's not over yet, Bowser – not even close."

"I know, I know – but I meant, it's like we've conquered the Mushroom Kingdom, after all these years. I know it's not _really_ like that, but I mean, they're _flying our flags_ outside!" He put the close-up feed of the flags onto the screen so Bowselta could see too: it wasn't _why_ he wanted to use the screen, but he figured since he was there using it, he might as well take advantage of it.

"So?"

"Told you she wouldn't care," smirked Kammy, off to the side.

"_Shut up_, bat-breath," Bowser turned back to Bowselta. "I mean, it's just something I've waited _so long_ to see – that _we've_ waited so long to see. It seemed like forever since we last tried to invade, and before that it always ended so badly, but now they're welcoming us – they're glad we're here, and they know it's a Koopan victory. _A Koopan victory!_ When was the last time that happened to us?"

"The Koopalingas?"

"Exactly!" Bowser beamed at his wife. "That's why I had to use the radio: remember King Floral's face when he realized you tricked him?"

"I remember, but seeing as we're working with his country, you might wanna hold back on that sort of gloating…"

"They don't mind," said Bowser with a dismissive wave. "Those mountains were nothing to them – heck, they only had them for a few years before we took them back! But they meant a lot to _us_."

"There will be time to get all sentimental after the war is over," said Bowselta, but she was smiling: Bowser's grin was infectious.

"Yeah, but it won't be the same. I've always wanted to tell you good news like this over the radio – on the big screen. Y'know, news that we won! That we won the Mushroom Kingdom, or just Dry Dry Desert Land, or even… Peach's Castle." Bowser's smile faded. "I wanted so badly for you to see me defeat Mario in Peach's Castle. Over the radio, on the big screen… It was the last time we spoke before you went away."

"I know, but I'm back now," said Bowselta. "I'm not leaving again."

Bowser's grin returned. "And neither am I! Or, at least, I'm not leaving for the first time – or, _any_ time…" Bowser scrunched his brow over what he even meant by that statement, before simply shaking his head clear and continuing on with what he _knew_ he wanted to say. "But don't you see: we've finally done it! Isn't this so much better than the Koopalingas? We were just retaking a bunch of uninhabited mountains then, but now – they're cheering us in the streets! Calling our names! And Mario isn't coming to kill me for once! Granted, I'm not looking forward to sharing all the glory with him once we meet up in an hour…" Bowser shrugged sheepishly. "But whatever – nomatter who we share it with, no one can deny that this was all because of the Koopas: we retook our land, and half of this one too. They should rename it from the Mushroom Continent to the Koopa Continent after all this!"

Bowselta smiled at her husband's bravado, although she knew that the land would never be renamed. She also knew that while Mario wasn't coming east to stop Bowser, once the Earth humans were gone, the Koopas wouldn't be allowed to stay in the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser _would_ have to leave. She didn't let it show as he continued to toot his own horn about the invasion for a bit, but after she finally talked him into hanging up and letting her get on with her work, a frown crept across her face. Bowser was right: all this _was_ because of the Koopas – because of Koopa herself, and it made Bowselta upset to think that when it was all over, they'd be expected to go crawling back to their mountains. Back to where the first Earth humans had driven them two hundred hears ago.

The mountains weren't so bad in and of themselves, but it was the principle of the matter: she never liked the thought of being oppressed by people from another world, and after everything that had happened recently, her desire to resist burned brighter than ever. And, after seeing the look on Bowser's face, and hearing the glee in his voice as his dream of riding across the Mushroom Kingdom as a conquering hero finally came true, she had no doubt that he wouldn't be able to go back to the status quo either. _Yes,_ she finally told herself, _things are going to change after all this. I won't let them take that land back from Bowser: they _won't_ make him leave the country he's wanted all his life – the land that once belonged to the Koopas, before they forced us into the dark. I won't let them deny the Dragon-Koopas our place in the world anymore; we won't be secondary to the Mushroom people and their humans anymore. It was Koopa who found the power two hundred years ago – she has watched over the world all this time, and now it is my turn._

Gripping her charm, Bowselta finally found her resolve: she would lead the final fight against the humans. There would be a thousand times more people at her back than the largest Koopan infantry she had ever commanded, and the thought scared her more than she would like to admit. However, she had no choice – not if she wanted the Koopas to win the war that their Queen started, and not if she wanted to keep the world for the Koopas afterwards. Once the battle was over, she could worry about how she would _keep_ that command, but for now, she had to stay focused. Bowser could afford to slack off and enjoy his glory, but Bowselta had work to do. The continent was free, but the humans weren't going to retreat any further: they were merely regrouping out at sea in preparation for their final strike, and the people of the Mushroom World, Koopas or otherwise, had to be ready for it.


	23. The Gathering Storm

Chapter 22: The Gathering Storm

As Bowselta had expected, General Powell decided to launch one, piercing attack along a stretch of the Mushroomian coast. He selected a spot southeast of Toad Town, where the sea was clear of the island chain to the west, and before the country widened to the east: he wanted the clearest path through the Mushroom Kingdom to Sarasaland as he could possibly get. The border to the north was along Chai, but the Mushroomian side was flat, Warp Pipe-filled terrain that Powell's troops could easily cross before the Sarasalanders had a chance to dig into their mountains, as they had last time.

And even if they did dig in, it wouldn't matter: the men who had escaped capture and returned to the fleet reported that the Sarasalanders were at the front in the Mushroom Kingdom. They could see that the Koopan airships were spread across the Dark Land and Mushroom Kingdom coasts alike: surely the Sarasalanders were still mixed in with the Mushroomians as well. Powell had the Mushroom Worlders pegged: they were blockading the shoreline as best they could – they didn't want to lose one spec of the lands they had worked together to reclaim. But that worked in his favour: this way, there would be no second wave of Sarasalanders to stop him once he punched through to the interior.

Powell was confident that his invasion would be different than Griggs'; fancying himself to be plotting the next Normandy, he set about mustering the troops – promising them glory, insisting that _he_ would deliver the Mushroom World. As much as he had admired Griggs, Powell knew there had been flaws in his strategy: he had relied on the airplanes and destroyers when the pair of amphibious assault ships were the untapped key to victory. With twenty helicopters and sixty amphibious assault vehicles apiece, Powell would decimate the guerillas on the beach; his tanks would roll across the Mushroom Kingdom and his choppers would fill the Sarasalandish skies. The destroyers would still be needed to deal with the Koopan airships, but as they had been kind enough to come right up to the water for him, picking them off would be easy. Even if they fled back to their volcanoes, Powell always had two squadrons of F-18s left to hunt them down.

Of course, General Powell knew better than to get _too_ bent out of shape over the Koopas: that was another reason why Griggs lost, and why he had misused his forces so badly. The amphibious assault vehicles were clearly useless against the sheer cliffs of the Dark Land shore, so it made sense that Griggs turned to the airplanes. But, once he subdued the Koopa Kingdom with the initial blitz of bombs, he should have recalled the planes. Combing Dark Land for the missing Bowselta Koopa had been a waste of resources: when attacking Sarasaland across the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms proved ineffective, Griggs should have given up on his hunt and sailed the _USS Zachary Taylor_ west to Seaside, the oceanic coast of Sarasaland beyond the Beanbean Kingdom.

There, he could have attacked the Sarasalanders in the same way he had attacked the Koopas, only this time, the amphibious assault ships could have been used as well; the planes could do long-range attacks into Chai while the tanks and helicopters scrapped with the seaside forces of Muda. The final kingdom of the Mushroom continent could have also been taken at that time: from what Powell had heard, Jewelry Land would put up even less of a fight than the Mushroom Kingdom, so a couple destroyers and landing craft would be all that would have to be spared. But no, Griggs didn't have the patience to wait until Bowselta showed up on her own – he just _had_ to obsess over her side of the continent and ruin everything.

Had Powell suspected the Sarasalanders had enough reserves to pose a problem along their border this time, _he_ would have swung around to their shoreline for _his_ final strike, but as things were, why waste all that time traveling? With the Warp Pipes and airships, the Mushroom Worlders could move their forces along the shore as fast as Powell could move his ships, so whether he landed in the Mushroom Kingdom or Sarasaland wouldn't matter: the blockade would be there to meet him. In fact, some of the airships had already grouped together on the shore north of the fleet, and surely, an army was gathering with them. But the General wasn't worried: they were still outgunned, and aside from the Koopan airships, they were technologically inferior too.

The only thing that gave Powell the slightest bit of pause was the Mystic Meteor; it was the only reason he cared about the Koopas, too. Griggs wanted to kill Bowselta out of spite but Powell was much more levelheaded. _He_ just wanted to kill her because she stood between him and the world – between him and the power he could attain with the Meteor. It was nothing personal – that had been Griggs' problem; if he hadn't tried to make a show of it, the whole fiasco with Koopa wouldn't have happened, she wouldn't have made her world so resistant to bullets, and the humans wouldn't have lost their access to the power. Powell wanted that power back, and the sooner he got it, the easier it would be to crush the world: he would make his men more powerful than they were before Koopa's meddling – it would be the _Mushroom Worlders_ who would be frail and powerless.

This was one of the reasons Powell welcomed the fact that the Mushroom Worlders had somehow pierced his state-of-the-art telecommunication blocking technology and figured out where he was going to land his fleet the next day. Not only would he have a chance to decimate a multitude of the enemy force, but a chance to capture the Meteor – for surely, Bowselta Koopa would be leading the charge, and surely, she would have the rock with her. The other leaders would probably be there too – the Mushroom King especially, as it was his land, and the Mario Bros.' presence would probably mean that Queen Daisy would be fighting beside her husband. Powell would kill a dozen birds with one stone when his fleet came crashing down upon the Mushroom Worlders, and without the leaders, without the Mystic Meteor, the rest of the planet would fall like dominoes to the invading humans. Of this, he was sure.

But Powell was wrong on at least one account: the Mushroom Worlders hadn't overcome his signal-scrambling technology to track his fleet. Unable to listen from afar, they had come to the source itself, and were carefully watching the unsuspecting humans with a legion of ghosts. No longer sensitive to the cold auras given off by the alien humans and their weapons, the Boos were much more willing to take a proactive role against the humans, and surrounded the ships, listening through the windows and venturing into any shadowy corridors they could find. The information they gleaned was then passed on along a relay of Boos hovering above the moonlit ocean waves to the shore, where Magikoopa Crystal-gazers broadcast the important bits to the rest of the Koopan, Sarasalandish and Mushroomian forces.

By the time the sun rose and drove the Boos deep under the waves to escape its light, the Mushroom World forces knew exactly what General Powell was planning, and they were ready for it. Almost the entire force of the three kingdoms had been transported to the beach that the humans had targeted, and King Peasley had even sent a fair amount of Beanish soldiers to help (although the majority of his troops remained behind with him as a second line of defense for the Beanbean Kingdom). Knowing that Powell could track the airships and assumed they were accurate markers as to where the Mushroom World forces were positioned, the Koopas only used four of them, to try and trick the humans into underestimating the amount of troops assembled below. The ships weren't even used to transport the soldiers, but to ferry the armor and weaponry that the tradesmen had hurriedly been churning out in Dark Land, which would be even more tedious to warp across the world than the soldiers themselves.

Almost every Warp Pipe in Sarasaland and the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms was used that night as troops and citizen volunteers streamed to the beach. More were still arriving after dawn had passed, including Bowselta Koopa, who had left Koopa Castle shortly after midnight, for she was not warping, but flying to the beach – in the last of the three planes she had built to commemorate her partnership with the then-Prince Bowser Koopa, 22 years ago.

The _KoopaCord_ wasn't as fast as the _7-Koopa-7_ had been, nor could it hover like the _Mark __II_, but the plump little airplane wasn't without its upsides: it was maneuverable and could land almost anywhere in a pinch. What's more, its simple propeller propulsion system wasn't energy intensive, meaning its power system was much more stable than the fancier planes: the _KoopaCord_ could easily survive a crash worse than the _Seven_'s. The wings could be ripped off, but the energy wouldn't destabilize, and the plane was built with an incredibly thick hull, so the Koopas within it would be protected. The _Seven_ had been made for transport; the _Mark __II_ had been made for recon, but the _KoopaCord_ had been made for conflict, and Bowselta was very glad the plane was still with her as she flew across the Mushroom World.

With her were Emerald, Crystal and the Mystic Meteor, as well as the more specialized pieces of equipment that would be needed to harness its power and create a beach-spanning forcefield. The rest of the tech that Bowselta had modified was being carried in the Koopa Cruiser, which was escorting the _KoopaCord_. It did not have forcefields, and the only lasers it possessed had been hastily welded on overnight, but that was okay since they were flying well inland, safe from destroyers and F-18s. All that really mattered to Bowselta was that the Cruiser had a much greater storage capacity than the new airships. In addition to the Koopa Queen's forcefield generators, it was also needed to carry as much medical equipment and personnel from Koopa Castle as possible, as well as a final shipment of armour. The blacksmiths who made the armour had also warped themselves to Koopa Castle, and as the ship flew across the continent, and with their metalwork finally finished, they rested up in preparation for the upcoming battle, wishing to serve their country by any means possible.

Emerald wondered if Mark Mallet was among the Koopas in the Cruiser behind them, but Bowselta was too preoccupied with thoughts of the battle ahead to pay her friend much mind, and she soon wandered to the passenger area of the _KoopaCord_ from the cockpit to be with her daughter instead. Sitting in one of the only seats that wasn't filled with machinery, spare parts or the few computerized parts of Bowselta's set-up, Crystal watched the Mushroom Kingdom pass far beneath the little red plane as the sun rose higher in the sky behind it. She could barely imagine what life would be like in the forests, the fields or the deserts. Even the Mushroomian mountains of Sky Land seemed alien to her: most of them were completely forested save for their peaks, which were constantly shrouded in clouds like southern Dark Land, and caked in snow and ice like her northern homeland. Even with the snow, she knew she couldn't feel at home in the Mushroomian mountains – she loved the sun too much.

"They're used to it," shrugged Emerald, after hearing her daughter's musing. "Like Bowselta and the others: Bowser hatched on Yoshi's Island and has spent a lot of time in the Mushroom Kingdom over the years, but going back to Dark Land is just as natural an existence for him."

"I could never do it…" said Crystal, biting her lip as she avoided her mother's gaze by looking out the window once more.

Emerald frowned slightly and looked out her own window: Bowselta had asked her to stay with the Koopa family after the war was all over, and as much as she loved her home in the north and the friendly people that lived all around her, she wanted to say "yes". She knew it would be better for Crystal, too: her daughter would have to leave many good friends behind, but gaining the company of Dragon-Koopas her own age would more than make up for it. The Koopalings were clearly eager to accept Crystal into their fold, and Emerald was glad to see her shy daughter becoming comfortable around them. What's more, Crystal was absolutely taken with Roy; whether it was with him or with one of the others, she would be able to have a family of her own in the south – something that would be impossible in the north.

Crystal was well aware of all of this. Emerald had told Bowselta that she had to talk it over with Crystal before answering the invitation, but she hadn't actually broached the subject with her daughter yet – she didn't need to: it was obvious that Bowselta's master plan involved the twelve Dragon-Koopas staying together. Why else would she have tracked them down in the first place? It was also obvious that Emerald wanted to go along with that plan, but Crystal wasn't as sure about what _she_ wanted yet, and it was tying her gut into knots almost as badly as the war itself. She wanted to stay with Roy and the others, but at the same time, she was so scared of leaving everything she had known behind.

She wanted to stay positive, but there was no guarantee that she'd be able to get along with the Koopalings in the _long-term_. Most of them were alright guys, but Junior had quickly proven to be rather difficult to like, and she and Wendy hadn't managed to hit it off yet either. Having never had a suitor before, she felt a little flustered by Iggy's obvious interest at times, and was just glad that Larry was too shy to be as brazen as his brother. Bowser and Bowselta were intimidating, as was the sheer number of soldiers that had surrounded her in Chai and in Koopa Castle; at times she felt like she could barely breathe, although she supposed the volcanic fumes could have contributed to that. She hated the hot, smelly, shadowy realm that the majority of Koopas called home – she couldn't imagine becoming one of those Koopas.

But was it the straw that broke the camel's back? Maybe she could tough it out for Roy… But, what if Roy never returned her love? How could she live with him and his family if she could never _be_ with him – especially if that life would be spent choked by clouds, smoke and darkness?

"Hey, look at that!" said Emerald, breaking the silence and calling Crystal out of her confusing thoughts. Beckoned by her mother, Crystal walked to the starboard side of the plane and peered through the window next to Emerald. To the north, they could see the castle of Sky Land, floating on a massive cloud high above a shimmering spring-fed lake. On one shore, surrounded by trees, a spiraling tower rose up to the cloud; it was so slender, it seemed to defy gravity just as much as the castle in the sky. "Neat, huh? Those Mushroom folk sure know how to build 'em fancy."

Crystal nodded, smiling at the magical scene and thinking back to the other places she had seen from the window of the _KoopaCord_ that morning. "I still don't approve of their methods, but, y'know, I can see why Bowser and Bowselta want this land so badly: it really is a beautiful place…"

Emerald had a feeling that beauty wasn't high on her friends' list of must-haves, but she nodded anyway: neither Lakipa wanted to dwell on their uncertain future. In the cockpit, Bowselta was also nodding to herself, having eves-dropped on the conversation with the Intercom. Its default setting was "on", and while Bowselta had generally tuned out anything it picked up, hearing her name had attracted her attention. Like Emerald, she was concerned about Crystal's resistance to the idea of living in Dark Land – without her, Koopa's bloodline and the Dragon-Koopa species itself would die before the Mushroomians celebrated their next Star Festival. Extinction was inevitable, but Bowselta didn't want to accept it just yet: she wasn't going to give up the fight for the Mushroom World, and she didn't want to give up the fight for her species either. If Crystal didn't want to come to Dark Land, all the more reason for Bowselta to ensure the land below her falls to Koopan rule when the war against the Earth humans was won.

_Not "if"_, Bowselta corrected herself, _"when."_ For just as General Powell was sure that he would come out the victor in the battle ahead, so too was Bowselta. She had the superior numbers, the magic that the humans craved, and enough raw energy to deflect the worst of their life-sucking power. She also had the element of surprise: the humans didn't know just how many Mushroom Worlders they were up against, and while they had correctly suspected that she was bringing the Mystic Meteor to the battle, they had no inkling of what she had planned for it. That wasn't even the only trick she had up her sleeve: there were a lot of things the humans wouldn't see coming, and it would cost them dearly. But Bowselta wasn't without her concerns; victory or not, there was no telling how many casualties her side would suffer in the battle – or who those casualties would be.

And then there was Vice-Admiral Travali. Apparently, in order to blind the Mushroom Continent, the humans had to cut themselves off from the second fleet with their technology, so there was no telling what his fleet was doing or how he had reacted to Koopa's speech (which had been broadcast worldwide). All the Boo spies had been able to ascertain was that he had been fighting the Kremlings and the tribal animal nations of the Alligator Archipelago up until Griggs' death and Powell's order to scramble the signals. This worried Bowselta: if Travali had a hard time in the south, maybe he wouldn't be as complacent towards her world as he was when Kamek witnessed his conversation with Griggs. If Kamek was wrong and Travali decided to continue the fight, rather than surrender, how the Koopas and their allies would fare was far from a sure thing.

Like Emerald and Crystal, Bowselta pushed the thoughts of extinction and conquest out of her mind: until the planet was safe from the Earthlings, she could not afford to dwell on which Mushroom World nation ruled the land. She also tried to ignore her paranoia about Travali: her head needed to be on the battle _at hand_ if she wanted any sort of victory, and while Bowser and the other rulers were handling the majority of the organization, there was much work awaiting Bowselta.

It was 8:00 when the _KoopaCord_ reached the beach – two hours ahead of schedule, thanks to a lucky tailwind that had been speeding them along since they crossed the Koopa-Mushroom border. The troops looked up as the little plane circled overhead and the Koopas among them cheered. Looking through their window, Crystal and Emerald gaped at the scene below them, and in the cockpit, Bowselta felt herself blanch. The crowd was nearly four times the size of the Koopa Troop alone, and ten times the size of any single gathering of troops she had to address in the past. Wrenching her eyes off the mass of people, Bowselta focused her attention on the ships that ringed the clearing. At the back were four new airships, with a dozen wooden vessels parked along the sides, and on the leeward side of the ridge that separated the troop-laden fields and the beach itself was the ten-year-old doomship that Griggs had stolen and brought to the Mushroom Kingdom.

While it was wooden like the other old airships, the doomship was more akin to the state-of-the-art vessels in terms of the technology it carried, and it was unique in its looks. Unlike the entirely swoop-like airships, the doomship's bow was the extend of its similarity, with the main body being more rectangular in shape, studded with pipes and bullet bill launchers. Both kinds of the older vessels used propellers to fly, but the doomship was equipped with technology nearly as complex as the newer airships, and even more versatile. Nine years previously, the doomship's sister had been converted to a time-travelling search-and-rescue vessel by Bowser, and now Bowselta was having this one converted into a base of operations. The scanning and telecommunications system that Bowser had used to search for his wife would be used to follow the goings-on of the war and direct the troops; the energy systems that had managed the Timulator would harness the Mystic Meteor. While the doomship had an extensive forcefield array, Bowselta was leaving that for the invisibility cloak: at all costs, the Meteor could not fall to the humans, and if the tides turned against the Mushroom Worlders, the doomship was to disappear and fly the rock out of the danger zone.

Looking down at the mass of troops during a final fly-over, Bowselta had a feeling it wouldn't come to that, but it still gave her comfort that she had a back-up plan. She was taking no chances.

By that point, the Koopa Cruiser had landed next to the doomship so that the technology it carried could be quickly installed. As well as specialized forcefield generators, the doomship was also getting a few lasers to supplement its countless batteries of Bullet Bill Blasters and cannons. As Bowselta flew in for a landing, she could see the medical equipment being offloaded as well: soon, the area around the doomship would be covered in tents where the wounded would be treated, since the forcefield above the ship would be the strongest, providing the safest protection.

But for now, there was clear space around the doomship, and that is where Bowselta landed the _KoopaCord_, making sure the Koopa Cruiser was between her and the masses. She was putting off facing the crowds for as long as she possibly could. Her landing choice wasn't made on a whim, however: she had it planned before leaving the castle, and as soon as they saw the _KoopaCord_ appear in the sky, Bowser, Kammy and the Koopalings had made a beeline for the doomship. Even Junior was there to meet his mother, the excitement of the war having drawn him out of his usual sullenness.

"Bowselta!" "Mom!" "Muzzer!" "Your Arrivedness!" "Ma!" "Mother!" "Mom!" chorused the crowd of Koopas as Bowselta swung open the plane's side-door. The Queen beamed at her family and Kammy, squeezing the Meteor happily against her chest as she jumped down into their midst.

Emerald and Crystal hung back, the latter also grinning at the sight before catching sight of her daughter's confused face. "What's the matter, kiddo?"

"Nothing, I guess. It's just odd to see them all so happy again – and after everything that's happened… I'm surprised they're _all_ happy." Looking around, the only Koopaling who showed any kind of strain was Lemmy, whose eyes were ringed with black, and the only evidence that any of them had been involved in grueling battles was Iggy's tattered and stained labcoat. Noticing her gaze, he tried to flash her what he figured was the suave, confident smile of a seasoned warrior – as seasoned as Roy, at any rate, but not so single-minded about it, of course – however she had already looked back at her mother. Iggy sighed and turned back to his own parents: it was worth a try.

Emerald shrugged. "Maybe they're rattled up on the inside, but seeing their mom again buried it away – I'd like to think _you_'d be happy when you're reunited with me after a bunch of brutal battles and almost-executions and what-have-you," Emerald smirked at Crystal.

"You kidding? I'd probably cry."

"There, see, mystery solved."

"But then why's Junior happy?"

"Pixie dust. – How should _I_ know?" Emerald waved off the question and looked down at the Koopalings, catching Lemmy's eye and shooting him a grin, which he sheepishly returned. "Take it from me, hon, don't look a gift-Yoshi in the teeth – enjoy it while it lasts."

Emerald then hopped down from the plane, for Bowselta was starting to lead the group towards the doomship. Crystal made a face as her lecherous mother fell in step with Lemmy, before turning her wistful gaze to Roy, who hadn't so much as looked at her once: he had been in deep discussion with his parents and Kammy about the state of the troops the entire time. _Enjoy what?_ she sighed to herself, also jumping down, her mind once again being filled with fears about her future. She didn't see that Larry had been dragging his heels, looking up at her while she deliberated on the plane, and when she caught up to the group, she barely registered that his was the shell in front of her.

Looking back over his shoulder as inconspicuously as possible, he could tell something was bothering her. He wanted to slow down a bit and walk beside her, to strike up a conversation with her and her get mind off whatever she was upset about. But he had a feeling he knew what – or rather, who – she was thinking about, and that was one thing he couldn't help her with. So while he did manage to slow down enough to bring them side-by-side, he remained as silent as the girl he adored.


	24. Gearing Up

**A/N: Describing the armour was surprisingly difficult; hopefully my words aren't lacking, but I also uploaded some pictures to supplement them, just in case. I've also got some leg bone structure stuff in there, to help illustrate the differences between males, females, and mutants like Lemmy and Wendy. The link is** ht tp: / / pics. livejournal. com/walkazo/pic/00034ak3/g1 **Most of the features are of my original design (as far as I am consciously aware of), although I obviously took some cues from real life armour. However, I **_**should**_** note that the tail design was inspired by Giga Bowser, while the spikes on the forearm guards were inspired by the "bone blades" possessed by one of the species in the TV show **_**Andromeda**_**. I also mention that some of the Koopas use extendable blades to supplement their claws, which was taken from some of Bowser's gear in **_**Mario Strikers Charged**_**. I probably ripped off the belly "chevrons" from somewhere too, but for now, I can't remember the exact source. Anyway, now on to the actual content…**

Chapter 23: Gearing Up

After Bowselta went over her plans one more time in person, the Koopalings, Kammy, Emerald and Crystal were dismissed. Ludwig and Iggy stayed to help install the new technology on the doomship, while Larry and Lemmy joined the parties who were planting the off-site energy panels: in order to make the forcefield cover the entire beach, they needed emitters all around the perimeter. A fog had rolled in beyond the shore, and as they worked, they couldn't help but cast furtive looks at the grey haze, half-expecting the humans to appear through the mists. Their worries were unfounded, however: the ghosts were still going back and forth below the waves, and the humans were still out at sea. They were planning to strike at high noon, sure the fog would be gone by then.

Noon seemed like a stone's throw away, but the Mushroom Worlders made the most of it. While his brothers worked on the ship, Morton worked with its sensors and communication systems, deploying camera-wielding Lakitus to bring him feeds from every corner of the beach and the troops beyond it. By the time the humans got there, Morton would know everything he needed to know about the systems, the troops and even the terrain to ensure the fight would be an orderly one. In theory, at any rate.

Meanwhile, Roy, Junior and Wendy joined Bowser in patrolling through the troops, ensuring the armour was being evenly distributed and trying to spread the Toads thinly enough so that no one section of the ranks would be significantly weakened by them. Bowser had half a mind to simply walk up to Peach and tell her to leave and take her useless people with her, but as Wendy and Junior were quick to point out, the Toads' big heads would at least draw some of the fire off the Koopas. Roy also added that as long as they didn't run away screaming, they'd be no worse off than the Goombas, so Bowser relented: instead, simply assigning as many fungi as possible to the easy jobs. The airships involved in the assault were going to be piloted solely by Goombas and Paragoombas, while the medical teams were mostly Toads.

Emerald and Crystal were also assigned to the medical division, and before the battle, they helped set up tents and received crash courses in the more advanced technologies and medicines that they'd be using. Emerald relished the opportunity to learn so much, but Crystal, who wasn't nearly as medically inclined, was merely overwhelmed and took no offence when her mother suggested she join the Toads and Medi Guys in recon, rather than intensive care. The thought of having to go out into the fray to recover those who fell in battle – and then lug them back to the tents for proper treatment – scared Crystal, no question about it, but it wasn't as scary of being the one charged with actually healing them would be. There were too many strange species with strange anatomy: the same bandages could be used whether the injury oozed blood, vim or sap, but that was about it – everything other treatment, tool or drug was different.

Kammy spent some time in the medical tents giving her own crash courses: there were only a few handfuls of Medikoopas available, and while most of the Magikoopas were more valuable as fighters, a legion of white-robed Magikoopas with more basic healing knowledge were drafted into the medical teams. Kammy left their instruction to the Medikoopas, however: her focus was on the dozen red-robed Magikoopas who were brought in to make revitalizing potion, and other essential brews. Like Crystal, the Medi Guys and the Toads (not including the Toad doctors and nurses assisting the Medikoopas and White Magikoopas), their main job would be to deliver assistance to soldiers in the battlefield, be that temporary power-boosts, healing spells or the aforementioned potions.

Once she was sure the Red Magikoopas knew what they were doing, Kammy moved onto the Magikoopas assigned to the Koopa family as bodyguards. But, since most of them already knew what they were doing, she was quickly freed up to help check over the technology the Dragon-Koopas would be using in the conflict. Iggy came over to help her once he was done on the doomship, but Bowselta summoned Ludwig before he could join them.

For her part, Bowselta had divided her time between installing the key equipment used in the Mystic Meteor setup, looking over the troops and terrain once Morton had his surveillance system down pat, and holing herself away to quintuple-check the plans. Part of her solitary confinement was also devoted to preparing herself for facing the troops, and while she would have much rather tried to forget about it and do something else, she forced herself to go over the speech she had planned a few times as well. Still, when Ludwig arrived on the bridge, she was more than happy to forget her speech-making for a few minutes and early invited him into the back section, which she had separated from Morton's control room by a retractable wall for the time being.

"So, all the emitters are set up, then?" she asked as he closed the door behind him.

Ludwig nodded. "Yes, and zee off-site vones too. Zat looks finished as vell," he tipped his head at the Meteor and the equipment that surrounded it. Not wanting a single spark to escape, Bowselta had the rock surrounded by energy input paneling below, and a spindly cage of wiring above, meant to attract and ensnare any trace of energy that escaped the wires that she had directly attached to the Meteor. It was all fed into a bank of controls and sensors, which then directed it elsewhere in the doomship. Another computer bank controlled the off-site energy panels, which merely bent the field that would be created by the doomship's array, since they didn't have any direct feed from the Meteor themselves. It was safer that way: many soldiers would be charged with defending the panels, but if they were destroyed, they would only weaken parts of the forcefield, without any danger of feedback or destabilization throughout the rest of the shield.

"Yep," said Bowselta. "The readings are all clear; part of me wants to test it – but I don't want the humans to know what they're up against any sooner than I have to."

"It's alvays good to have zee element of surprise," nodded Ludwig, looking around at the technology with interest. "But…" he sighed turning back to his mother, "as much as I appreciate zee chance to inspect your handivork, zis isn't exactly zee moment for sight-seeing, so I suppose I should ask _vy_ you've asked me here."

Bowselta smiled and walked up to her eldest son. "I have something for you." She then reached over and picked up Koopa staff, which Ludwig hadn't even noticed propped up against the retractable wall, beside the door. "I know it's a bit late, but, here – happy birthday." She held the staff out to Ludwig, but he just shook his head, dumbfounded by the offer.

"Muzzer, I- I can't accept zis."

"Sure you can."

"But it's _Koopa's_ staff."

"And you're Koopa's descendent."

"I- I suppose, but still – _you_ should-"

"Ludwig, have you seen me use magic? I can blow stuff up, but that's about it. But you? No, you'll actually make _good_ use of this thing."

Ludwig was still shaking his head. "But it's not right."

"Are you kidding? It's totally right – I've got my sword, and you need a wand: you should have been using this for the entire counter-invasion, but at least you'll be fully armed for the battle that _really_ counts, hm?"

It was true – Ludwig _did_ need a wand, having dropped his in the _7-Koopa-7_'s engine room all those weeks ago. He had been making due with his electricity powers and firebreath, but he sorely missed the versatility that spellcasting granted him. He looked down at the proffered scepter, but stopped himself as he started to reach for it. "No- it's not fair to zee uzzers."

"They'll understand – like I said before, _you'll_ make the most use of this."

"But Vendy's good with magic too."

"But not as good as you. Kammy says you're better than most _Magikoopas_ she knows."

"Now _zat's_ an exaggeration," scowled Ludwig.

Bowselta rolled her eyes. "Fine, you're better than _some_ of the Magikoopas she knows – but that's still saying something. I'd wager you're approaching Alistor Magripa in skill – and with the right equipment, maybe you could even _surpass_ him."

"You overestimate me," said Ludwig, shaking his head once more.

"And _you're_ too modest," huffed Bowselta, lowering the weapon. "Ludwig, Bowser and I both agreed that you should have the staff. You need it for the battle; with your skills, you deserve it; and after everything that's happened lately, you've earned it."

"Vee all vent srough hardships zeese past few veeks."

"Maybe so, but still, I feel bad knowing that the only thing my son got on his twentieth birthday was an amputation."

"I got zee leg _back_," argued Ludwig. "Zat's more zen I could have asked for."

"That may be so, but now _I'm_ asking _you_ – please, take the staff." She held it out again. "It's _meant_ for you," she said.

Ludwig had to admit – it did seem like something beyond his control was drawing him to the staff, like it wasn't just his mother who was asking him to reach out and take it. He had seen the power that a proper Dragon-Koopa scepter could dispense for its wielder – sometimes he still awoke from nightmares of burning green light and monsters of bubbling blackness. Part of him longed to try it for himself, but another part remembered the shadow that had crossed Junior's face when he grasped Morton's staff – a darkness that had never truly left his soul…

"Don't make me order you to do it," growled Bowselta good-naturedly.

"Junior vill hate me," Ludwig finally admitted. The others would understand that he was the most logical choice for the staff, but his youngest brother would never forgive him for accepting it – and he would never forgive their parents for offering it either.

"He's going to hate you no matter what you do," sighed Bowselta, who was as aware of the consequences of her choice as much as Ludwig.

"It's not his fault."

"It's not _your_ fault."

Ludwig looked up from the staff at his mother; they were the same height now, and it still felt weird to not have to look up to meet her gaze. In his mind, he was still a child, but she looked upon him as an equal – she was the Queen of the Koopas now, yes, but he would be King someday, and she was proud to have him as her heir. The staff was her way of recognizing him. Both were sorry about the road Junior was walking down, but neither could stop him – only he could do that, and now was not the time to dwell on the uncertain future.

"It's not your fault eizzer, Muzzer," said Ludwig, before looking down and finally reaching out a trembling hand and closing his fingers around the staff. The jewel at the end glowed for a split second and a rush of warmth flew through Ludwig's body; he nearly let go in shock, but checked himself in time. Bowselta stepped back and smiled as Ludwig held the staff upright, raising his fingers to touch the prongs that curled around the deep blue jewel.

With a "BANG" the door behind Ludwig flew open, causing both Dragon-Koopas to jump. Automatically, Ludwig swung around, brandishing his staff in both hands, its tip once again glowing.

Bowser threw his hands up, staring at the blue glow with wide eyes. Behind him, Morton had swiveled around in his chair. "Whoa-oh! Is that Koopa's staff? Whoah Luddy! Awesome! Wait'll the others hear about this!"

"Well, looks like the secret's out," said Bowselta as Morton turned around and started chattering into his mouthpiece.

"I can't believe I missed it – way to not wait for me," huffed Bowser.

"I summoned you _fifteen minutes ago_," said Bowselta.

"I thought it'd take Ludwig longer to get here – Iggy said you had a lot more to do before you were finished."

"Iggy exaggerates," said Ludwig. "Somesing about making it seem more impressive ven vee finish ahead of schedule. He got it from a TV show, I sink," said Ludwig dryly.

"Ah well," shrugged Bowser, before stepping forward and throwing his arms around the Koopaling for a brief squeeze. "Happy birthday, Ludwig – glad to see it works well for ya." At the last bit, Bowser tapped at the tip of the spear with one claw, his other hand still on Ludwig's left arm.

"Yeah, almost _too_ vell – I nearly blasted your head off back zere."

"Key word: '_nearly_'," winked Bowser. "Anyway, I gotta go see Kammy – she's calibrating… something." He then grinned, his excitement about the upcoming gift contrasting greatly with his son's stubborn resistance. "I think it's a new Clown Car."

"Hopefully minus the clown part this time – it's not very becoming of you," said Bowselta.

Bowser shrugged as he left the room. "As long as it's not pink."

"Don't let Roy hear you say zat," chuckled Ludwig, moving to follow him.

"Don't forget to report to Tent C to suit up at 11:00," called Bowselta. "You better not be late this time, Bowser!"

"Yeah yeah," waved Bowser dismissively as he and Ludwig walked off the bridge, side-by-side. Bowselta watched them go with a smile, then with a sigh, she retreated back into the Meteor room and closed the door. She had a speech to practice.

-xxx-

As it turned out, Bowser, Ludwig and Iggy were the first to Tent C, after Bowselta, who had gotten there early. The other Koopalings filed in soon after, and by the time Crystal and Emerald arrived, many of them were nearly done suiting up. Bowselta herself _was_ finished, and both Emerald and Crystal were awestruck when she greeted them at the door.

The entire point of Dragon-Koopa armour was to protect as much bare skin as possible without compromising any movement, and the designers had done magnificently. Like the anti-dragonfire harnesses, the helmets were anchored around the horns, but a nose ring wasn't necessary to hold the other end in place, for the snouts of the helms fit over the Dragon-Koopas' flesh like a glove. Indeed, the nostrils were perfectly clear so that the Dragon-Koopas could breath freely, just as there was nothing blocking their mouths, except for the extreme tips of the helmets' jagged underside, so cut as to resemble a skull. It was an effective facsimile, although the design around the eyes kept it from becoming creepy: rather than having eyeholes in an otherwise solid helm, the front portion of the face was bare, with the snout below and a band above, curving along the hairline. This design ensured that the Dragon-Koopas' vision was unobstructed as their firebreath, and Bowselta was quick to explain that the eyes weren't actually unprotected.

Like wands and musical instruments, the armour tapped into the Dragon-Koopas' own energy, using it to make the metal supernaturally strong, and creating a forcefield between the crown and the snout of the helmet. It was too draining to be left on all the time, however, and would only activate when foreign objects attempted to cross the threshold. The reaction time was fast enough to stop lasers, so Bowselta figured it would be good enough to stop bullets, especially since Queen Koopa had beefed-up the planet's resilience to the dark human energy. Same went for the armour itself: if Koopa shells could withstand the bullets, Bowselta assured the Lakipas that the metal plating and mail would do just fine.

And it certainly looked impressive enough. Chain mail hung down from Bowselta's helmet, looping under the chin, where an elastic running through the links ensured that it fit right against the skin whether Bowselta had her mouth wide open or closed shut. It wasn't tight either way, however, and the mail itself was loose, allowing Bowselta full movement of her head. The mail ran up to her hairline, but didn't cover her mane, instead using a few thin bands running through the hair to fasten the two sides of the mail. This was mainly for aesthetic purposes, and for comfort, since having the hair underneath the mail would be itchy and uncomfortable (according to Bowselta), but it didn't compromise safety either. Koopa hair wasn't like mammal hair – instead, it was made of elongated scales, stronger than follicle or feather, which should block most blows. Still, like the face of the helmet, the bands of the mail could create a forcefield between the bases of the hairs along the scales in a pinch, as could the rims of the helmets, the tops of which were also open to let the hair through.

The bands of metal running along the Dragon-Koopas foreheads weren't just a means to create forcefields before the eyes and through the hair, however, but like the exposed hair, were also used as a decorative aspect, and a means to identify individuals. While Koopas don't wear crowns in normal circumstances, they did when they put on the armour. Bowselta's helm was topped with spires of gold, sweeping back and fitting just over the natural spikes in her hair, contrasting sharply against their blue and purple colour. Bowser's helmet was of a similar design, although the gold spiked were shorter and trimmed with black, so that they stood out from his red hair. Looking around the room, Crystal and Emerald could see that the Koopalings also had their own styles, but unlike their sovereign parents, there was no gold in the makeup, just silver steel.

Since there was no hair to work around, Roy's helmet had a solid dome topped with a single spike like the helmet he usually wore from day to day. His helm was also unique in that it had a built-in pair of red sunglasses, with the metal from the snout and the crown connecting directly too them, negating the need for any forcefield. Iggy's helmet also took his vision problems into account, with built-in goggles replacing the standard forcefield design. Morton didn't have his helmet on yet, but the Lakipas guessed it would have a closed top like Roy's, while all the other helmeted Koopalings had the standard spire design, although the silver spikes differed in height, width and curvature between individuals. Iggy and Lemmys' spikes were short and vertical, while Larry's looked like his father's, as did the spires on Bowser Junior's tiny helmet, although seeing him without a scarf across his snout diverted most of the attention from the rest of his armor. The fact that Ludwig was now accompanied by Koopa's spear also took focus away from his helm, which was actually more elaborate than his siblings. The central spire was long and thin like Bowselta's design, and ran over the part in his hair, while the side spikes were short and wide like Bowser's; all were trimmed in bronze to stand out from the blue, and to make the heir himself stand out from his siblings.

There was also variability in the amount of mail that hung from the helmets: while Bowselta and Lemmy both had long necks, Bowser and the rest of the Koopalings present didn't need nearly as much mail. Presumably, Wendy also needed extra mail, but she wasn't amongst her brothers in the spacious tent. While it was hard to see on some of the Dragon-Koopas, the mail pooled at the base of the neck, connecting to a solid breastplate, which ran under the rim of the shell beneath the arms, locking into place with only a minimal amount of magic. Only Bowselta had any personalization to this aspect of the armour, with a small circle cut in the center of the chest, in which the charm was imbedded, its strap still looped around her neck beneath the metal. It was turned so that only the blue top was visible, with the Paratroopa shell decorations hidden beneath the metal. It had been arranged this way because it was the most secure set up, but now that the true composition of the charm was known to all, it was fitting that only the pure blue of the Meteor was visible.

The rest of the armour looked standard for all the Dragon-Koopas, although the Lakipas couldn't be completely sure of it, for only Bowselta was fully geared up by that point. Beneath the chest were four chevron-shaped plates, overlapping and sliding over each other like the scales of a fish. The tail was also covered in circular rings of metal, two of which used the tail spikes as anchor points, while the rest just connected to each other, and to the base piece, which did not loop all the way underneath, and like the body plates, connected underneath the shell. The Dragon-Koopas' underparts, upper arms and legs were mainly protected by mail, with plating on the leading edge of the thighs, the shins and the forearms, as well as pointed shoulder pieces and large triangles hinged over the hips like a samurai. The backs of the feet and hands were also covered in metal, but the soles and palms were clear: the scales there were very tough in their own rights, and this way, there was no danger of mobility or dexterity being hindered by the unfamiliar feel of shoes or gloves.

Similarly, Bowselta also had her talons clear, although Bowser and a few of the Koopalings chose to augment their smaller claws with steel blades that could extend beyond their fingertips or retract to allow them to use their hands like normal. And, while the horns, shells and tail spikes were all left to their natural sharpness, the Dragon-Koopas were given an extra dose of pointyness in the form of spiked elbow and knee pads, as well as a row of thin, sharp blades sticking out from their forearm guards. Bowselta, Lemmy (and probably Wendy) all had a pair of spikes on their tips of their tail covers as well, although the normal males' tails were too short for this feature to be useful. Lemmy's unique physiology also meant that he alone sported spiked ankle guards, with a forearm-like guard (minus the blades) running down from there, leaving only the balls of his feet bare.

"Okay, so here's _your_ armour," said Bowselta, once she had fielded the Lakipas' questions about the functionality of the suits. "I'm giving you my extra set, Emerald, and Crystal's getting the stuff Wendy wore when she was her age. I had the Magikoopas turn it white with red crosses – hopefully the humans will be decent enough to not shoot at medics."

"Hopefully," squeaked Crystal, as Emerald eagerly picked up her new helmet. The elder Lakipa was probably going to spend much of her time behind the front line, but Bowselta wasn't taking any chances: if her friend did end up going into the fray, or if any fighting was brought to her, she was to be protected.

"I also had the crown stuff removed – hope you don't mind," continued Bowselta.

"No, no, not at all – we understand, right, kiddo?" grinned Emerald, inspecting the plane band on her helmet, before giving Crystal a playful nudge.

"Um, d- does our armour need to be as spiky as yours, if we're not fighting, I mean?" asked Crystal, disregarding her mother.

"Nope – a lot of the bits have been taken out of your armour already. There's only mail for your limbs, for one thing – the forearms are going to be bare, but I figured that'd be better if you're going to be treating people."

"Good call," nodded Emerald.

"We can also take off the tail spikes once you get suited up – you'll probably need some adjustments anyway, so I'll just have Kammy take them off at the same time. She should be here soon," added Bowselta.

"That's good – I think I'd be a bit constrained in something meant for _your_ frame," Emerald grinned: she was a curvaceous woman, and proud of it. "Crystal might be okay, however – she's pretty slight, not that you can really tell under all those clothes. Anyway, let's get this show on the road." Emerald set the helmet down and quickly slipped off her bag, putting it next to the pile of armour before picking up the helm again. "I can start with this right? How am I supposed to get my horns through the holes?"

"It's a bit fiddly – you've got to actually take this part here off first-"

"Ah, I see it now. Very cool, then I just put it over like this?"

"No – slide the snout on first – then that snaps into it."

"Ah, right, of course – Crystal, don't just stand there: get that dress off."

"Wha? But- but, here? With all of them-" Crystal's eyes flicked around the room of Koopalings, most of whom had been watching Bowselta helping Emerald with the helmet as they pulled on their own coverings, but now stared right back at the quailing young Dragon-Koopa.

"You're not a Shy Guy, honey – its not like you have anything to hide," said Emerald, wondering if some tough love would be the better way to snap her daughter out of her self-conscious phase.

"It's okay – she can change with me," Emerald and Crystal looked up to see Wendy holding back the flap of a small corner of the tent which had been curtained off for privacy. "Just girls in here," her smile had genuine warmth in it, but even if she had been sneering, Crystal would have taken up her offer.

"Oh, thanks so much!" The younger girl scooped up her armour and dashed across the tent before her mother could protest, picking her way through the armour-laden tables and half-dressed Koopalings. "No offence – you understand – maybe next time," she blabbered to the boys as she went, but it was unnecessary. No one minded her shyness, and while both Iggy and Larry felt sorry to see her disappear behind Wendy's curtain, they knew better than to let it show.

"Thanks so much," repeated Crystal when Wendy dropped the flap behind her.

"Don't mention it – I had a feeling your mom would try and use this opportunity to finally get you naked in front of everyone," Wendy smirked.

"She means well," winced Crystal, looking away. "I'm too shy for my own good."

"Even so, she should know better than to pester you about it _now_. I mean, even I kept covered up when I was growing in my adult scales."

Crystal looked round at Wendy, a new feeling of gratitude washing over: she _understood_.

Recognizing the look she received, Wendy smiled again. "It's easy to forget about what it's like, I'm sure – Mother sure didn't warn me about how sucky it was going to be. I mean, sure it makes your face look exotic, but everywhere else just look like you've got green mange or whatever."

"And when you take off your clothes, there's always a tonne of loose yellow scales, like when mammals get dandruff," added Crystal.

"Oh yeah, ugh, so gross," Wendy shivered, but then turned back to her pile or armour. She already had her helmet, breastplate and the neck and upper arm mail on, and picked up one of the belly chevrons as she continued speaking. "At least it only lasts a couple months."

"Yeah…" Crystal sighed, not overly thrilled that her one good excuse for not changing in public had an expiry date. She set her armour down next to Wendy's and stood on the opposite side of the table, facing the wall, and slowly reaching up to pull off her dress. "Um, Wendy? If you don't mind my asking, why don't _you_ want to change in front of everyone?"

"Same reason you don't – I don't want them to stare," said Wendy, finishing with the chevrons.

"But? Why would they stare at you? I mean, they'd all look at me because, well, you know – I mean, they all stared when I took off my pants back in the cave, and when I lost my sleeves, they kept looking at my arms. Not _all_ of them, but- well, you know what I mean. But I mean, they've seen it all for you, right? And you're their sister, so…"

"I don't mean they'll stare _that_ way," Wendy rolled her eyes at the younger girl's rambling, but her moment of impatience was short-lived as she pulled herself up backwards onto the edge of the table, frowning as she extended one of her legs out in front of her. "Anyway, it's because of these- these stupid, ugly, mutated feet."

"Um-"

"I don't like people seeing them," continued Wendy. She hadn't planned on decompressing to Crystal, but now that she started, she couldn't stop herself. "They're so gross. It looks fine on Lemmy, but they're so horrible on me. When I was little they were freakishly tiny, and now they're all long and bony. I hate people seeing them – and my brothers have no manners, so they'd stare. I just know it. I mean look at them!"

Wendy reached down, and with a few good tugs, her foot was clear of the boot. It wasn't so bad, but it wasn't great either. The separation between female Dragon-Koopa toes occurred deeper within the feet than the males, and while this was usually far from a problem, it meant that while Lemmy had a solid base to walk on, Wendy's foot started to elongate almost immediately after the toes came together. "They don't even work right" spat the Koopaling as she pulled off the other boot, "half the point of the boots are structural support." The upper portions of the feet were incredibly bony, with the calf muscles tapering out just over the ankles; the heels also jutted out due to a deep instep. It was markedly different than Lemmy's feet, though whether the lack of flesh was due to disuse or whether the disuse was necessitated by the frailty, Crystal couldn't say, and she knew better than to ask.

"I'm sorry about your feet," murmured Crystal, turning away as Wendy started pulling on her lower portion of mail. "I suppose I should be glad that I don't have anything that _needs_ covering up-" Suddenly realizing how rude that sounded, Crystal hurriedly tried to make up for it. "I- I mean, not that you _need_ to cover it up. I mean, it- it's not _that_ bad, and-"

"Don't worry, I know you didn't mean it like _that_," said Wendy, waving her hand dismissively as she started pulling a new pair of black and silver combat boots over the mail.

"Still, I'm sorry – I should really start thinking before speaking," winced Crystal.

"_Don't worry about it_," repeated Wendy. "Besides – I wasn't trying to make you feel bad about _your_ reasons to stay all covered up. I certainly don't feel a need to cover up the rest of me, but if you wanna be a nun, that's your choice – not your mother's. Koopa knows my mom likes to try and mess up _my_ style." Wendy rolled her eyes as she hopped off the table, reaching down and adjusting the boots, digging the spiked heel into the dirt underfoot as she wriggled her mutated feet into place within the metal-plated leather.

"I don't want to be a _nun_," said Crystal. "I just… I feel so… so _naked_ without clothes on. I mean, obviously I'm literally naked, but also, I dunno, I feel so… wrong. Even tight-fitting clothes feel wrong."

Wendy viewed the girl out of the corner of her eye as they continued pulling on armour. Crystal was slower and more awkward, but she had far less to attach, and was already pulling up her own mail pants while Wendy hooked on the shin, knee and thigh guards. They'd probably be done at the same time, relatively quickly, and part of Wendy was glad: she found Crystal's mousiness to be a tad irritating. However, another part felt compassion for the impressionable girl; between her Shy Guy pals and her intimidating mother, it wasn't really her fault that she turned into a shrinking violet.

Maybe with herself as a new, positive influence, Wendy could lighten her up a bit – that was the whole reason she even bothered taking pity on Crystal and inviting her over. It was obvious that the Lakipas would be a permanent fixture in the Koopa household, and Wendy was willing to put in some effort if it'd make Crystal into a cooler companion. Of course, even if it didn't work, Wendy was glad she was getting a girl friend of any sort – venting about her feet had been surprisingly cathartic. It's not like she could talk about something like that in such a way with one of her _brothers_, or even her parents – the mere thought was laughable.

For her part, Crystal was just happy that Wendy was being friendly for a change. She had never been _unfriendly_, but this was the first time the Koopaling seemed to show a genuine interest in kinship with her after their initial meeting. Only Junior had been frostier, but Crystal didn't take it personally – he was like that towards everyone. Wendy's coolness, on the other hand, had given Crystal some pause – the boys were nice, but the one girl possibly disliking her worried Crystal. Now, she wondered if perhaps that was changing. It was certainly a relief that Wendy was on her side when it came to clothing – she certainly showed more support in the past five minutes than Emerald had in the past five years. _Perhaps,_ Crystal found herself thinking, _perhaps staying in the South wouldn't be so bad after all._


	25. Noon

**A/N: This is the last chapter before the final battle FINALLY begins. But first, just a quick note that Peach and Daisy's armour are partly inspired by Link's tunic-and-mail combo in **_**The Legend of Zelda**_** series, while their face-framing helms are a bit like Dark Ace's headgear from the **_**Storm Hawks**_** TV series.**

Chapter 24: Noon

As the fog burned away in the midday sun, the troops assembled behind the beach, forming into ranks that coated the leeward side of the hill and spilled over into the fields beyond. The tents around the doomship were bustling as the medics made the final preparations for the battle ahead. In the sky, the four new airships spaced themselves evenly over the beach, with the wooden ones, joined by the Koopa Cruiser, concentrating themselves on the wings, beyond the scope of the forcefield, which had yet to be turned on. While Morton watched and directed proceedings from the doomship, the other seven Koopalings quickly made their way to the front of the troops, waiting along the edge of the hill as dark shapes appeared in the hazy distance. By the time Peach, her father, Daisy and the Mario Bros. joined the Koopalings, the fog was completely gone and the humans ships were black shapes upon the gleaming waters, creeping ever closer towards shore.

"T minus fifteen minutes," reported Morton, who was also keeping an eye on the humans. His comment wasn't over the general com channel, however, but was directed to his parents alone.

"Got it – we'll head to the front now," said Bowselta, struggling to keep her voice from shaking. Her helmet had a two-way radio built in; the sound that came through was only audible to herself, and she activated the microphone with her mind, much like the retractable claws of Bowser's armour.

"Shall I begin clearing a path for you?" asked Kammy, who had also got Morton's message through a headset she wore under her hat. At Bowser's insistence, she also wore a gown of mail, but only because her usual purple cloak fully concealed it, for no self-respecting Magikoopa would be caught dead supplementing their defensive charms with crude metal coverings.

"Sure, I'll be out in a minute," said Bowselta, turning away as Kammy opened the hatch and shuffled outside. Once the door was closed, she began pacing around the airlock of the doomship, her heart racing as the social anxiety she had been trying to swallow all morning came welling right back to the surface.

The only other person in the room was Bowser, who hurried to try and calm his wife. "Hey, hey, it's okay," he said, stepping forward and reaching towards Bowselta, but she just pulled away.

"Easy for you to say – you always _loved_ mustering the troops."

"But _you_ enjoy making ultimatums-"

"But not when half the world is _watching me!"_ hissed Bowselta, her nostrils flared and her eyes wide in near-panic. She stopped abruptly, facing the wall as she reached up and ran her claws over her metal-framed face with a ragged sigh. Bowser shuffled up behind her as she limply dropped her arms to her side, her eyes closed as she breathed deeply through her nostrils to try and cool her nerves. Almost tentatively, Bowser reached forward with his right hand and fit his large, meaty fingers between the claws of his wife's left hand. She looked down and then met Bowser's silent gaze, smiling as she curled her fingers around his.

"I could always do it for you – I bet I could wing something awesome," said Bowser wryly. "My best lines are always ad-libbed."

Bowselta shook her head. "No, I have to do this."

"You sure?"

"Positive." Bowselta turned her head towards the door, sliding her hand out of Bowser's as she started towards it. Bowser followed a couple steps behind, but was stopped in his tracks when the Koopa Queen suddenly whirled back around, dug her claws into the mail on his upper arms and pulled him into a wholly unexpected embrace. Nevertheless, he returned it without question, resting his hands on Bowselta's spiked elbow-guards while their mouths did all the work. The teeth of the helmets complicated matters a bit as they poked into flesh and scraped across metal, but it was no matter to the Dragon-Koopas as a sudden, burning need for one another consumed their world.

For weeks, Bowser had felt it building within him – a yearning for his lover that ran deeper than lust or lonesomeness, as if a part of himself had strayed, just out of reach. When Bowselta was away from him, Bowser felt an unspeakable dread, and even when she was there, it wasn't close enough. It wasn't that their love had faltered, but rather, some unthinkable force was pulling them down separate paths, and the few stolen moments they had shared since the humans arrived hadn't been enough to bring them together again. But not this time. Even as the seconds ticked away until the final, bloody battle ahead of them, there was nothing to stop Bowser from giving Bowselta his all. No mystic mountains, no grinning audience, no Sarasalandish doors, just the two Dragon-Koopas, while the world waited outside.

Bowselta couldn't forget what awaited her beyond that hatch, but right now, Bowser was more important to her. Just as he had felt like something was missing, she had felt like she was somehow drifting away from the world. For nine years, she had lived with the knowledge that she was condemned by Officer Griggs' bullet – in the quiet of the night, she would stare into the darkness and know that eventually, it would consume her. And she suffered alone, unable to tell Bowser, and even when she finally confessed in the caves, she still felt like she was standing apart from him, and moving further away. But while Bowser had tried to reach out, Bowselta had become too used to the isolation to fight, and instead threw herself into the quest to save the world – so that he would be happy even without her.

But she couldn't do it anymore. The world would be looking to her alone to lead them, but she couldn't be alone. She needed Bowser – she needed him to be with her, to be part of her again. No more lies, no more shrouds, no more distractions. Her world was Bowser. It was the roughness of his fire-worn scales against her lips as he kissed her again and again. It was the sharpness of his teeth, the softness of his mouth and the slickness of his tongue on hers. It was the smell of his breath, and the taste – she could taste herself on Bowser's lips, between his lips. They were one again, for another moment, but Bowselta wouldn't let this one fade, and as she fervently kissed her husband she was burning it all into her mind. The smell and taste and feel – what it made _her_ feel: the numbness in her fingers, her head spinning yet completely in tune with the world, with Bowser.

Then as soon as it had started, it was over. Bowser barely had time to return Bowselta's small smile before she had backed out of his arms and turned towards the door. Before a shred of doubt could creep back into her mind, she opened the hatch, pausing only to let her dilated pupils adjust for the noonday sun before stepping out into the crowd, strengthened by the fact that Bowser was at her side, following only a half-step behind.

Kammy had been waiting for them, and as soon as the door swung open she was alighted on her broom, leading the way along the path that she had already cleared through the crowd. She flew high enough to ensure that Bowselta had a more pleasant view than her derriere, but the Koopa Queen was unseeing as she followed the Magikoopa forward through the sea of faces. She could still feel the eyes boring into her from all sides, and she could glimpse the movement of bowing Koopas out of her peripheral vision, but she refused to pay it any mind. Instead, she cluttered her thoughts with some artificial anticipation for the exciting battle ahead, rhetoric about ensuring a better future for her children, blurred memories of the past few weeks – anything to keep herself distracted. But most of all, she thought of Bowser. Had she not been riding a wave of elation caused by her moment with him, she might not have been able to overcome the suffocating phobia she felt towards her own people, but struggling as she was, she held herself together as she marched on and on. _Bowser is with me – it'll be okay_, she told herself. _Bowser is with me – it'll be okay_.

Bowser, on the other hand, was quite enjoying himself as Koopas fell to their knees or bowed their heads as he walked by with Bowselta. The Sarasalanders and Beanish soldiers just watched stoically, but to Bowser's delight, many other species joining the Koopas – from both Dark Land and the Mushroom Kingdom. Even some Toads, afraid of angering the Koopas that surrounded them, dropped to the ground – it was a sight that Bowser had long dreamed of, as was the gathering itself, really. It took a monumental amount of self-control to keep himself from grinning like a giddy idiot as he surveyed the inestimably large crowd that, ultimately, was answering to him today. Sure, the Beanish, Mushroomian and Sarasalandish troops were still being ordered around by their respective leaders, but _they_ would be following Bowselta's lead – and by extension, Bowser's as well.

It was finally his time.

He and his beloved wife were going to lead the liberation of their planet – and that would never be forgotten: _they_ would never be forgotten. Bowselta would always be remembered as the descendent of Koopa, who's near-sacrifice was the miracle that made it all possible, it was Bowser who led the counter-invasion in the wake of Koopa's return. He freed his people and they cheered his name; he flew victorious across the Mushroom Kingdom and they joyously flew his flag. Forgotten was the bitter disappointment as every invasion preceding that flight ended in slaughter and shame; forgotten were the days when the love and respect shown to him by the vast number of subjects were false. Forgotten were the whispers that he was a failure for losing to the Mario Bros. time and time again, a monster for getting his children involved, a fool for kidnapping Peach, a disgrace to King Morton's name. Forgotten were all the times Bowser was forsaken by his troops – forgotten were their claims of mind-control, their cowardice, their insincere apologies to a king they hadn't hoped would return.

All Bowser remembered were the soldiers who had never wavered in their loyalty, and he let himself believe that all the Koopas fighting for him this day were just as supportive. He thought he had finally emerged from Morton's shadow – that by freeing his people and leading a war far greater than any other battle before it, he would be remembered. Every time he had led an invasion in the past, he had told himself that it would be the one – that it would end in the success he had long dreamt of; this war was no exception, but victory would be so much sweeter. Swept up by the heady whirlwind of success and anticipation, he convinced himself that by the end of the day, he would have secured his position as the greatest Koopa King to go down in history.

He didn't consider that the Koopalings, the Marios, Peach, Daisy, even Wario and Waluigi and anyone else who rode into town on the heels of retreating humans had been met with equal appreciation from the liberated peoples. He didn't look ahead to when the Koopas would surely be asked to return to their kingdom, and how that would remind the Koopan people so vividly of the countless times they crawled back across the border after Bowser's own desperate invasions ended in painful failure. He didn't consider that when was said and done, he might just be considered as one of the many leaders who led the invasion, that the only one who would be raised above the rest would be Bowselta, her bloodline, and her glowing blue rock. He didn't think his time in the sun would be over as soon as the war was won – he didn't _want_ to think about it.

Soon they reached the top of the hill and the crowd dropped behind as Bowselta took her place upon a rocky outcropping. Bowser stopped short, still in front of the troops, whose lines stretched out along the crest of the hill, going almost the entire length of the beach, which gave way to rocky hills that ended in low cliffs at the water's edge. He looked from side to side, still drinking in the sight of so many soldiers at the command of the Koopas – including Mario and co. The red plumber was standing to Bowser's right with Peach and her father, who was perched atop Yoshi; to Bowser's left were Daisy and Luigi, and Wario and Waluigi stood further along the front.

Like the Dragon-Koopas, the humans wore personalized coats of armour for the final battle. Mario and Luigi's white gloves and brown shoes were replaced by metal gauntlets and combat boots, and Luigi also sported green metal plates and guards that were not unlike his Strikers gear save for the crest of Sarasaland emblazoned upon them. Mario didn't have the future of a kingdom's royalty resting on his shoulders, and forwent any plating, instead just wearing a red mail coat beneath a pair of plain bluejean overalls. Both were confident enough in their skills and rapport with the protective Star Spirits to wear their signature caps over proper headgear. Their gumption suited Bowser just fine – maybe he'd get lucky and find himself rid of more than one human pest problem before the day was over.

Peach and Daisy's helms were quite similar to the Koopas', with metal rims running along their foreheads and framing their face, but with their hair flowing free; there was no forcefields protected the exposed parts, however, and Bowser hoped Peach's faith in the Stars was not misplaced. The rest of her was covered, however – her and Daisy's necks, arms and legs were bound in black, magically bulletproof cloth, and they also wore breastplates from which gowns of mail hung down to their knees, tightened by belts at the waist and covered in pink and yellow fabric, respectively. Like Luigi, Daisy has the Sarasaland crest displayed on most solid pieces of metal, while Peach had her iconic blue gem imbedded in the front of her chest piece. Bowser couldn't help but draw a parallel to how Bowselta was displaying her blue charm in _her_ armour, and wondered if perhaps that was intentional. His wife never forgot his passing fixation on Peach, and he wouldn't put it past her to one-up Peach when it came to decorating the one outfit she ever wore…

But it didn't really matter – Bowselta was the only one for Bowser, and he shrugged off the observation as just another trivial point and shifted his focus to Peach's father. King Toadstool was getting pretty old (for a human); his moustache and small, pointed beard had long ago faded from black to white, and Bowser suspected he was bald underneath the black, jewel-studded mushroom cap he wore out of deference to his Toad subjects. Like the Marios, he kept his usual headgear, but his armour was much more straightforward, with metal plates covering his rotund body and his limbs, connecting to combat boots and gauntlets like those worn by the Marios. As well as the Mushroom insignia painted across his chest, he also wore a long dark blue cape over the back of his armour.

He was perched atop Yoshi, who had come to the Mushroom Kingdom for the wedding and hadn't left before the invasion started. He had been fighting alongside Mario and Luigi before their capture as well as after the liberation, although credit was not given to the old dino nearly as much as his human friends. He was certainly given a starring role this time, although there hadn't been time to make the Mushroom King's steed any fancy armour beyond a rudimentary helmet. It was somewhat similar to Koopa helmets, with the head and snout fully covered, without anything obstructing the mouth or restricting the movement of the lower jaw, but there was no forcefield spanning the empty space before Yoshi's eyes. However, like Mario, the veteran warrior Yoshi optimistically felt that the plain coat of mail wrapped around his neck and draped down his sides would be more enough anyway.

Looking further down the line of soldiers, Bowser could pick out the nearest Koopalings, who were stationed at equal intervals along the front. He knew Wario and Waluigi were also somewhere on the front line, but he figured they were near one of the edges since he couldn't pick them out at all. He knew the Beanish general had chosen to be positioned at the West edge of the beach to help make sure no humans tried to skirt around the main battlefield, rather than join the other leaders in the center, in front of the doomship.

Bowselta didn't look around, her eyes fixed on the ships before her. The massive _Nimitz_ class aircraft carrier was still far out, but the two _Wasp_ class amphibious assault ships were buzzing with helicopter rotors and had already begun deploying their troops. Humans in countless amphibious tank-like assault vehicles were approaching the shore with the nine _Runnymede_ class landing craft, while the seven _Arleigh Burke_ class destroyers remained in formation around the larger ships. They would all have to be dealt with quickly, before too many birds were in the air – even as Bowselta watched, the first of the helicopters took to the sky. Then Morton finally signaled: "Okay Mom, the camera's are rolling – knock 'em dead! Figuratively, I mean – unless they don't listen, of course, which is probably what's gonna happen, but-"

Bowselta cut off her radio, and closed her eyes, blocking out the sight of the humans and the camera-wielding Lakitus hovering around the peripheries of her vision. She took a deep breath and then snapped her eyes open. "Humans of Earth – I'll make this brief!" she began, her voice strong and unwavering, as she stared across the waters, her eyes flashing. "We outnumber you, our technology matches your own, and the Mystic Meteor grants us powers that far outstrips the advantage once granted to you by your toxic weaponry. If you fight us, you _will_ lose – but if you call off your attack, we will happily free every prisoner we have taken and send you all back through the portal. And then, with the Mystic Meteor, we shall close it behind you – to ensure _no one_ crosses between our worlds for _any_ reason _ever_ again…"

This statement sent mutterings of surprise through the ranks, and even Bowser and Kammy shared a surprised glance: the prospect of sealing the portal was news to them – evidentially, Bowselta was still holding out on some of the information Koopa had given her. But Bowselta didn't pause to let this revelation sink it: the boats and the helicopters were making their final approach and jets were roaring off of the aircraft carrier in the distance, soon to join them. Her timing would be close, but Bowselta was determined to finish her speech. Barring the execution, it _was_ her public debut, after all, and she was going to end it on her own terms.

"…We have no intention of following you through and invading Earth – anyone who told you otherwise is either misinformed, or a liar. They have gathered you here today, not to defend your world, but to conquer ours, and we will _never_ let that happen. So, I give you one last chance: turn your ships around and go home in peace. The choice is yours – surrender, or be destroyed."

As if in response, one of the F-18s that had past over the helicopters fired a missile, aiming to destroy the leader of the Mushroom World resistance on live-television, but Morton's timing was better, for he had already tripped the switch to activate the forcefield. A wave of green flashed through the air above the army; blossoming out from the doomship, it blanketed the beach, its sparking tendrils reaching towards the remote energy panels. The missile hit the forcefield almost as soon as it had been launched, and the F-18 that fired it fared no better, pulling up too late and clipping the sparking green energy, flipping and exploding against the forcefield. Illuminated by the fires above her, Bowselta only had one more thing to say: "ATTACK!"


	26. Final Battle

**A/N: I'd just to take one second to say that this whole three-chapter "Final Battle" sequence was the most difficult thing I have EVER written. I really hope it turned out okay, and I'm very sorry if it didn't.**

Chapter 25: Final Battle

"ATTAAAACK!" bellowed Bowser.

"ATTACK! ATTACK!" echoed Kammy, shooting sparks into the air from her wand.

"CHAAAARGE!" cried King Toadstool, spurring Yoshi forward down the hill towards the humans.

Mario and Luigi sprang into the air behind him, their cries of "LET'S-A-GO" and "HERE WE GOOOO!" almost drowned by the battle cries of the combined army of the Mushroom, Koopa and Beanbean Kingdoms and Sarasaland that poured over the hill behind them. Even Peach and Daisy cut loose with visceral screams of excited fury as they ran with the men. Rather than following the humans, Bowser leapt into the air with a roar, flying clear over Bowselta's head and landing squarely into the new helicopter that had been summoned by Kammy's sparks. It looked just like the Clown Car, only with a different face: Kammy had gathered that Earth clowns were far less dangerous than those of the Mushroom World typically turned out to be, so she decided to explore a different design. The demonic orange eyes were nearly the same, but now the grin was toothy and draconian, much like the Koopas' themselves. In fact, Bowser's face matched the 'Car quite closely as he pulled into the sky along with the flying troops, eager to catch up to Mario as he tore towards the humans nearing the beach.

-x-

The human soldiers in the landing craft listened solemnly as Bowselta delivered her speech. Some wondered if she was telling the truth, questioning the wisdom of trying to retake the continent after such a staggering turn of events as Griggs' death and their loss of the worlds magic powers. Others ignored her, their loyalty to their superiors unwavering as they tightening their grips on their guns as they prepared to fight the lying, murderous monsters. And those superiors, who knew that Bowselta was speaking the truth, were not moved by this last call for a peaceful solution: the lure of the power and glory of the Mushroom World was far greater than anything Earth could offer them – they didn't _want_ to go home.

But resolute or not, what followed the speech gave all the humans pause. They had not bet on the Mushroom Worlders being able to shield the entire beach – and while the helicopters could still make it under the forcefield, it would be far too risky for the F-18s. And it got worse: the sound of the F-18's explosion had barely subsided when it was replaced with the roar of the Mushroom Worlders as tens of thousands of creatures representing hundreds of species came spilling over the crest of the hill.

Humans, Beans and Toads, were joined by Shy Guys and Koopas of every colour. Boom Booms, Koopa Kids, Spikes and Strikers charged alongside by Tokotoko and Pionpi from Sarasaland, Meta-Chomps, Limbo Bros. and Chuck Guys from the Beanbean Kingdom, and Bandits, Snifits, Spear Guys, Piantas, Yoshis and Birdos from the Mushroom Kingdom. Stampedes of Goombas, Chibibos, Tanoombas, Anuboos, Troopeas, Nokobon, Buzzy Beetles, Spike Tops, Bob-ombs and Bob-ulks follows close behind the larger, faster species. Undead Dull, Dark, Red and Dry Bones, giant Super Dry Bones, venomous Garons, Karons, Vomers and Bony Beetles clattered between their living counterparts and mechanical Metabon, Mecha-Chomps and Jail Goons glinted in the noonday sun. Chain Chomps of all sizes were cut loose near the edges of the beach and behind them, hundreds of Bullet Bill Blasters began firing from the cliffs, their semi-sentient projectiles targeting only Earth humans.

But Bullet Bills, Missile Bills, Banzai Bills and the like weren't the only things in the sky, however, as the air above the army of monsters was filled with more troops. Paratroopas, Fly Guys, Para-Bombs, Paragoombas, and even Goonies and Chicken churned the air with flapping wings, while Bunbun and Fighter Flys buzzed and Toadies whirred. In the west, Fawful zoomed high over the troops shrieking "ATTACKING! ATTACKING!" with his headgear, while all across the beach, Lakitu, Lakipea, Fire Chomps, Magikoopas, Amps and Angry Suns used their gravity-defining magic to join their winged brethren. Roketons streaked forward both below and above the forcefield, lending support to the fleet of airships that dared any human jet pilot to try and pass inland.

The humans had expected the opposing forces to be large, but their hearts still dropped at the sight of the multihued army surging towards them. But now was not the time for second-guessing the wisdom of retaking the Mushroom World, and the first wave of soldiers pushed the trepidation out of their minds as the amphibious assault vehicles reached the shore. The men's feet had barely hit the sand when the ground beneath them began to shake – and it wasn't because of the stampeding land troops. All around the humans, Pokeys and Piranha Plants of various species burst from the sand. The men had their guns out and swiftly turned them away from the approaching army to the one that surrounded them, but they were overwhelmed.

Pokeys came up directly under the tank-like assault vehicles, overturning them with their combined strength. But it the Piranha Plants were far more devastating. Most of them were large enough to seize men whole, their fangs passing clear through the limbs that stuck out while the sheer force of their jaws crushed the torsos within. Not all the humans were taken in the first instant, however, and many plants also met a gristly end as bullets sheared their stalks or blasted their bulbs apart. The ground was soon drenched in blood and sap alike, and while more and more plants burst forth to replace the fallen, the carnivorous forest was thinning as the humans that were still approaching shore fired volleys at the plants to clear a path. But the barrage also cleared the way for Mushroom World troops, and with Mario and Luigi in the lead, armoured soldiers charged past the Piranha Plants and rushed the humans as they landed.

It was then that the battle began in earnest, as guns blasted and magical powers burned all across the beach. In the center, Mario and Luigi's fireballs roasted the gunmen from afar, while their hammers and boots came into play when their opponents got too close, and off to one side, the princesses were using magic of all sorts to keep the Earth humans at bay. Magic, fire, guns and bombs flashed brighter than the noonday sun, while above the fray, the scene was no less chaotic as helicopters were swarmed by fearless flying soldiers.

The battle was raging beyond the shielded beach as well, with the airships and their flying support locked in a frantic firefight with the F-18s. Wooden craft were in flames within moments, and many of the F-18s were taking runs at the forcefield below, aiming to punch through above the doomship that was producing it. There was a very real concern that they would succeed, and so the forcefield-bearing airships were forced to remain in place, both to draw some of the fire from the shields and the wooden ships, and to try and dispose of the Hornets with their weaponry. Only when the threat to the shield was eliminated could the airships move on to the next phase and go forth to fight the human ships.

But for the time being, the only fighting on the ocean was being done at sea level, as the Mushroom World forces attempted to head off as many humans as they could before they even reached the shore. The soldiers in the amphibious assault vehicles had urged their drivers on when they saw the surprise attack that met the first group of men on the beach, only to find themselves in a similar situation as the water around them exploded with life. Cheep-Cheep, Gobies and even Blurps and Rip Van Fish leapt from the waves and rained down upon the soldiers. The men and women fired into the sky, but it was no use, and entire boats fell prey to the ravenous fish. But Cheep-Cheep were not the only dangers, and other vessels were beset by Bloopers of all sizes. The small ones were easily picked off as they floated above the waters, although a few managed to get close enough to blind their shooters with a final blast of ink. The larger creatures like Gooper Blooper were more dangerous, however. Keeping their bodies safe under the waves, they'd simply wrap their tentacles around entire landing craft and pull them over, dumping their human passengers into the water for the likes of Big Berthas, Nibbles, Mega-Cheep, Boss Bass, and Porcu-Puffers, which were too big to jump for their prey.

But try as they might, the aquatic forces couldn't stop all the vessels from reaching the shore, and despite the Mushroom World's early success, the humans were pushing inland. Their bullets were still devastating, killing most victims immediately, and incapacitating almost all the rest as the toxic blackness swiftly sucked them dry. However, the sides were not as uneven as they had been during the initial invasion. Thanks to Koopa's magic, even the feeblest armour could deflect the projectiles as if they were less potent than fireballs, allowing creatures of all sizes to charge right up to the humans and take them on in hand-to-hand combat, which almost inevitably went to the Mushroom Worlder. Still, many did not come out of those altercations unscathed: most of the armor was not completely covering the fighters, and even if was just a mere grazed arm or leg, if the wound bled black, it was a death sentence. But rather than despair over the lingering death that would inevitably catch up to them sooner or later, they simply fought all the more ferociously. They had nothing left to lose, and everything to gain by avenging themselves on the human invaders.

Blood, sap and vim covered the sand as Mushroom Worlders and Earthlings alike dropped like flies. Not even the undead were safe, as enchanted bones were crushed beneath assault vehicles, and did not reassemble. The humans learned to focus on the unarmoured forces, and made quick work of hundreds of Goombas and Toads, but the native forces made just as quick work of them. Humans were crushed by streams of hammers, burned by fire, lightning and magic, frozen by ice attacks, poisoned by venom and gasses, their necks snapped by boomerangs and their bodies broken by ricocheting shells. Many even found themselves in the unenviable position of being at the business end of a Yoshi's tongue – and the mouth it retracted into.

However, despite the valiant efforts of the Mushroom Worlders, the humans were advancing up the beach. The helicopters were successful against all but the Roketon, the strongest Magikoopas and Bowser, who split his time between burning enemies from above and blasting helicopters as they tried to do the same. Bowselta and Ludwig also found themselves up against the helicopters much of the time, intercepting them as they attempted to fly over the hill and make a run for the doomship. The vessel was already defended by its many racks of Bullet Bill Blasters, but it was still a comfort to know that there were Dragon-Koopas personally attending to the defense of the shield and the Meteor that powered it.

Ludwig alternated between blasts of fire, lightning and magic to attack the helicopters, sometimes being forced to use his teleporting ability to get in range of choppers that tried to skirt around him. Bowselta simply let the helicopters come to her, knowing that she was almost as big a draw for would-be war heroes as the doomship behind her. Her only real weapon was her firebreath, but her aim was good, and like Ludwig, she was surrounded by a powerful group of Magikoopas, who gladly helped out with barrages of magical shapes when the choppers drew near. Bowser was also ready to defend his queen, and often made his own attack runs when he saw helicopters making a break for her perch on the hilltop. And, when he was at one of the far ends of the beach or too busy with an in-progress barrage, he still kept an ear tuned in to Morton's running commentary to make sure Bowselta was doing fine without him.

While he wasn't fighting, Morton was pushing himself to the extremes of his ability as he desperately attempted to keep abreast of everything that was happening. While the Mystic Meteor shone at his back, the multitude of glowing screens before him displayed the chaos of the war. He had Lakitu cameramen surreptitiously keeping an eye on his seven siblings, his parents, King Toadstool, Peach, Daisy and the Mario Bros., while others were stationed strategically around the beach, with one more surveying the fighting above the shield and a final Lakitu recording the battle at sea. The human-focused Lakitus were only really there if anyone asked him about their status, since he was having a difficult enough time keeping track of his family, even with a pair of Magikoopas helping him keep an eye on the screens. In an ideal world, he would have been able to watch them all, plus the Lakipas, and the Beanish General, and he'd have radio links with every airship, and maybe even a real-time three-dimensional hologram of the war to make scheming _really_ easy… But as things were, he was already worried he'd start to feel overloaded sooner or later – and if he got overloaded, he'd miss things; he'd make mistakes. It was not a happy thought.

-x-

Crystal sprinted through the narrow valley, not daring to look back at the helicopter that was making quick work of the Bullet Bill Blasters on the crests to her left and right. _Why!_ She demanded of herself, _Why did I have to respond to that call? I should have let one of the Magikoopa come out here_… She was in the far west stretch of the beach, coming to the aid of a couple Koopa technicians who had been stationed to service any Blasters that were damaged but not destroyed. The area was _mostly_ Blasters, but not a single Bullet Bill was reaching the chopper as it chased her down.

"I'M A MEDIC!" she screamed, knowing full well they couldn't hear her, and knowing the red and white markings should have told them that already. Obviously they didn't care – obviously she was _dead_. As soon as they made sure they wouldn't be blasted as soon as they took the time to shoot at her instead of Blasters and Bills, she'd be dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.

Suddenly, a stream of fire streaked through the sky above her – _towards_ the helicopter. Chancing a look up, she barely had a glimpse of Lemmy sprinting along the tops of the blasters on the hillcrest to her right before he was past her. "YOU HEARD THE LADY!" he screamed, "LAY OFF!" Like Crystal, he knew the humans couldn't hear him, but he was too enraged to keep to himself.

Despite everything that had happened and all he had seen, Lemmy didn't want to shed any more blood than he absolutely had to, and so he had chosen to be positioned nearer the edge of the beach. He had hoped there would be less soldiers there – from both sides. That way, he'd have to partake in less fighting, but if anything did happen, he would have no choice but to step up: he wouldn't have the option to wuss out and let someone else take action for him. He was going to take care of himself – he was going to take care of things himself, even if that meant killing.

And right now, he had blood on his mind. He was filled the same cold fury that had consumed him when the F-16 shot down the _Seven_. The bastards on the helicopter were chasing Crystal – a harmless young girl who was already like family to the Koopas and who was only there to help people. She was _off limits_, and they were going to pay for even trying to lay a finger on her.

As he neared the chopper, he blasted it with more fire, but it was more resilient than the others had been – its destruction would require more invasive techniques. Bullets ricocheted off his armour as he jumped off the hill and sailed towards the helicopter, but unlike Crystal, his armour was complete – only his jowls were naked and they were now protected by another stream of fire. The human gunners reeled back as the chopper was filled with flames, and shouted in alarm as Lemmy seized the landing gear and caused the chopper to lurch violently. Unfazed by the fact he nearly undershot his target, Lemmy didn't miss a beat as he crawled up the side of helicopter, and before the flames of his last blast had a chance to die down, he had emptied another lungful of fire point-blank into the base of the rotors.

He pushed off with all his strength, once more finding himself flying through the air as an aircraft exploded behind him – but this time, the destruction was completely on purpose. But as with the _Seven_, Lemmy wasn't quite fast enough to escape all harm, and with Crystal watching in horror, the tail of the exploding helicopter came swinging around, broadsiding the Koopaling and sending him flying in a whole new direction. He hit the side of the right hillcrest and tumbled to the bottom of the valley while behind him, the helicopter smashed into the ground. Crystal was knocked to the ground by the sheer force of the explosion, but three dark shapes whizzed past her as she fell – Lemmy's Magikoopa escort. Wands raised, they conjured up a forcefield in the nick of time, preventing the ballooning flames from reaching the Dragon-Koopas.

Instantly, Crystal was on her feet again, sprinting towards the Koopaling, fearing the worst – the helicopter's back rotor had hit him directly in the face, and anything could have happened. But as she drew near, Lemmy was already picking himself up from the ground, although her relief was short-lived when he turned to look her way. His right horn, the mutant s-shaped one, was completely gone – snapped from his head like a tree branch, with only splintered, bloody fragments left sticking out from the base. What's more, his eyes were pointing in completely different directions."

"Lemmy! Y- y- y-"

"Ah don't worry – they used to always do this," he said, smacking his head with his hand, causing both eyes to roll about sickeningly before he eventually got one pointed at Crystal; the other was still wandering a bit. "There- all better. Well, mostly."

But Crystal was shaking her head, and finally noting the first twinges of pain, Lemmy reached back to touch his horn – and his eyes widened with shock. "My-" his fingers probed at the jagged bone fragments sticking out of his skull, but when they travelled up further to his scalp, he cried out: "my _hair_!" The rotor had mowed off his rainbow mohawk, leaving only a couple inches on, barely enough to clear the tip of the left, and now sole horn on his head.

"Wh- what? But your _horn_ is missing!" said Crystal in disbelief.

"Yeah, but it can be replaced in no-time with some revitalizing potion. Heck, I could get a _proper_ horn this time. It's gonna take _months_ to grow my hair back!"

"Well, aren't there potions for that too?"

"None that work!"

"_Really?_" Crystal was shocked: she figured that'd be one of the oldest potions in the book.

"Really," said Lemmy, looking up as another helicopter passed by. "It's headed for the doomship – that's why they were blasting blasters: to make a path, so they can get around the defenses on the hill. I gotta stop it-"

"Wait – you're hurt!" Crystal tried to block Lemmy as he suddenly started after the chopper, but the Koopaling sidestepped her.

"I'm fine!" called Lemmy as he sprinted away, teetering dangerously as he went. "You get out of here too!"

"Don't worry, we'll get some potion in him before the shock wears off and he starts feeling that injury," assured one of the Magikoopas as the threesome flew after their charge.

The fact that he wasn't overly concerned about Lemmy's state gave Crystal a little comfort, but she still had a bad feeling as she watched Lemmy scale the side of the valley farther down and disappear over the row of destroyed Blasters. While she hadn't really known him before the invasion turned the entire Koopa family into a rather grim bunch, she gathered that he was usually lighthearted, but still, the dismissal of a serious head wound seemed more reckless than carefree. It worried her.

-x-

Far away, on the far east stretch of the beach, Roy was not having a good day. To his left, a cliff covered in Bullet Bill Blasters rose out of the sea to ensure no one got any cute ideas about avoiding the heavily guarded beach altogether, but they could come this far no problem – and come they did, in amphibious tanks no less. They were after the remote energy panels, aiming to damage the shield, or at least shrink the amount of space it protected. They would just be guessing about what would happen if they destroy the panels, but Roy knew that if they succeeded, they would accomplish both goals. Alone, the doomship couldn't protrude the shield out far enough to cover both ends of the beach, and what's more, without the panels providing anchor points, more energy would be wasted giving the shield a shape. They hadn't installed any energy panels in the front of the beach since they would be easy pickings, but the entire back edge of the shield was paneled, with a couple anchors on the side.

The anchors on the west end were protected by most of the Beanbean Kingdom forces present as well as a hefty amount of Koopas, with both Larry and Lemmy in the area, so Roy felt secure about them. Meanwhile, he oversaw the defense of the eastern panels along with a large chunk of the Koopa Troop, and they had been doing well. Until the bloody tanks started rolling up.

The Koopatrols, Terrapins and civilian Koopa Troopas wearing makeshift armour were fine against human footsoldiers, but the heavy artillery from the amphibious assault vehicles simply blew them away, Koopa's powers be damned. So, it fell to Roy to stop them, with cover from the squadron of Hammer, Fire and Boomerang Bros., and of course, his Magikoopa escort. Roy wasn't an overly magical creature – his only special abilities were temporarily stretching out his limbs and wall-climbing, but his armour meant he couldn't extend his arms, and there were no walls to claim. So, he was stuck using the basic Dragon-Koopa skill-set: firebreath, jumping, Ground Pounding, punching and sheer brute strength. Fortunately, this suited him just fine.

With a roar, Roy leapt high into the air, followed by a stream of hammers, which rained down upon the assault vehicle ahead of Roy. The humans in the nearby tanks pelted Roy with bullets, but they clattered harmlessly off his armour and the sides of his shell. There had been a couple close calls, but no bullets had hit Roy's snout yet, and he was smart enough to keep it that way – and only roared when it was accompanied by a barrage of fire. The humans in the vehicle screamed and the men on top leapt off as Roy crashed down onto their tank, crushing it and its human contents. Leaving the surviving men for his troops, Roy immediately charged at the next vehicle, punching it clear into the third tank. The punched one was clearly destroyed beyond repair, so Roy merely climbed over it and ripped the turret off the third tank, casting it away and dropping a Bob-omb into the innards of the vehicle.

He hopped off and started jogging back to his men, but he was too slow and the blast that consumed both tanks knocked him forward. "Sir!" "Your Highness!" "We are very sorry!" nattered the Magikoopas and other troops, rushing forward to help, but he waved them off.

"I'm fine! I'm fine! And NO, dis does not mean you guys get ta stay wid me when I smash tanks from now on," he glared at the Magikoopas through his sunglasses – after they got in the way of a couple otherwise perfect demolitions, he ordered them to simply protect him from afar. They didn't want to listen, but the Koopaling was instant, and _their_ safety was in danger if _they_ tried to insist.

"Don't cut it so close next time, Roy!" chirped Morton over the intercom.

"I tought _I_ was da 'Big Brodda'," growled Roy in response, not keen on how his brother had live video feed of everything he did. "Don't you got a war ta direct?"

"Yeah – and if you're getting tired, I can _direct_ some reinforcements over there," said Morton.

"I'm FINE!" roared Roy.

-x-

"Do you think he's _really_ fine?" asked Wendy, sending a triad of blazing rings at an advancing platoon of humans. Two were destroyed en route by a hail of bullets, but the third ring hit home, cleanly decapitating one of the men.

"No," said Iggy, following up with a barrage of laser fire from the Zapper in his right hand and taking out two more men.

Both Koopalings then ducked back behind the wrecked amphibious assault vehicle providing shelter as more bullets whizzed forward. Wendy spoke quickly: "Maybe we should go over and see if we can help Roy?"

"I'd love to save Roy's ass as much as the next guy-" began Iggy, but the appearance of the humans beside the tank cut him short, as he sent a blast of firebreath at the men. With the flames as cover, Wendy jumped out from behind her brother and finished off the soldiers with a barrage of spells. "-but we can't leave this part of the beach unprotected," he continued as soon as the danger was eliminated. "We've spread out the Dragon-Koopa force enough as-is!"

Originally, the Koopalings had spread themselves out along the beach, but Iggy and Wendy ended up being drawn together to help with a large skirmish that happened directly between their previous territories. Realizing that teamwork made the battle easier, they decided to remain together, and made up for thinning the overall beach cover by dashing back and forth looking for more large groups of humans to decimate – to make the most of their powerhouse partnership.

"Psh, I'm sure the center part'll be fine without us – they have _team Mario_ after all," said Wendy, before taking off, having spotted another group of humans in the distance. Iggy followed, but the two were immediately pelted with human fire when they stepped away from the tank – the humans they had just mowed down had already been replaced.

"Shit!" yelped Iggy, stopping in his tracks and hurriedly raining lightning down on the firing squad. Wendy sent more rings in their direction, but didn't stop running: she had bigger fish to fry. Iggy was more of a perfectionist, however, and ducking down behind a small sand dune, he opened fire on the humans, pulling out a second Zapper to help speed things up. After about a minute of back and forth fire, Iggy and his Magikoopa escort had the humans down and out – and only then did he follow Wendy.

She wasn't hard to find: as always, she was in the center of a savage firefight between the Mushroom World and Earth forces. Confident that the armour, her Magikoopas and her holographic duplicates would protect her, she took her fight up close and personal to the humans, rather than firing from a safe distance. As Iggy neared the group, he could see her strategy was paying off once again – golden rings were whizzing through the air, originating from four different Wendys and a swarm of Magikoopas, sliding through each other again and again in a disorienting dance. The humans were shooting every which way, unsure of which rings were real and which were decoys, and totally unable to pick out their assailant from her light show. They stood little chance, and combined with the barrage of lasers, bouncing fireballs, hammers, rocks and spiked balls being fired through the sea of Wendys by the Mushroom Worlders, their numbers were swiftly going down.

But as Iggy finally came in range and readied his own Zapper, a helicopter flew low overhead and opened fire. The line of Mushroom Worlders broke in a panic, and the holograms disappeared as a missile exploded against the hastily erected barrier the Magikoopas made around Wendy – saving her life, but not stopping the shock from breaking her spell. _The helicopter has a heat sensor_, Iggy gritted his teeth, _but not for long_. Sucking the Zapper back into his hammerspace, Iggy then conjured up a lightning storm around the chopper, frying its electronics. Wendy was on her feet again and she followed up with a flurry of spells, with both her and Iggy's Magikoopa's following suit. Not even watching to make sure that was enough to finish off the helicopter, Wendy turned back to the footsoldiers, flinging a new wave of burning rings and stinging coins at the men and women shooting at her. As the helicopter's wreckage smashed to the ground, Iggy reached Wendy's side, his own wand drawn, and a final volley of spells from the Dragon-Koopas and Magikoopas finished off the enemies.

Breathing heavily from the exertion of the blitzkrieg skirmish, Iggy turned to his sister. "I'd like to see Mario and Co. do _that_ – we're needed here."

"No," insisted Wendy, pointing to the southeast. "We're needed _there_ – if we can stop humans from coming ashore, we wouldn't _have_ to run around back here. And there's no one decent down there – you can see the tanks landing no problem. They wiped out all the Piranha Plants ages ago."

"But we need to beat the ones who have already landed back-"

"Yeah, and that's going great," Wendy rolled her eyes. "The battle was only in our favour when we kept them at bay with the Piranha Plants and the Cheep-Cheep: as long as they keep coming, we'll keep losing ground. We need to stop the humans at the source – and that's the shore. Where do you think Mario and the other's are?"

Iggy thought about it for a moment – she didn't seem like the strategist type, but Wendy seemed to be on to something.

"Good, so it's decided!" she grinned, taking off once more.

"Wait, I didn't say 'yes'! No answer is not 'yes'!" protested Iggy, but nevertheless, he took off after his sister towards the under-defended stretch of shoreline, radioing Morton as he went to let him know about their new plan.

-x-

Upon the hilltop, Bowselta also listened as Iggy relayed Wendy's plan. She had actually been thinking the same thing – only her sights were set on a source even further than the shallows. Once Iggy was done, she opened her own comm channel. "Morton, tell the airships to move out – it doesn't matter if the shield will be more exposed to the planes – we're never going to win like this. We need to take the fight to them, and we need to do it now."

"But they'll send more F-18s-"

"I said it doesn't matter," snapped Bowselta, before smiling darkly. "Besides, if the plan works, that won't be a concern for much longer."

-x-

Roy growled as he crushed another amphibious assault vehicle. Didn't he say he was doing fine? Iggy and Wendy didn't need to come help him.

"Come on, sir, don't tell me you _want_ the tanks to keep coming?" said Johnson.

"I can keep dis up all day!" snarled Roy, punching the smoldering tank for good measure.

The aging Koopa Troopa smiled – the Koopaling was more and more like his father every day. But unlike Bowser, Roy was a bit better at knowing when to fold 'em, and if he said he could keep it up, he probably _could_ keep it up.

"Well, I'm happy to hear that some reprieve is on the way – with them leaving, keeping the panels perfectly undamaged will be more imperative than ever," Johnson pointed skyward as the four forcefield-bearing airships passed overhead, heading out to sea. They were accompanied by a number of wooden ships and hundreds of flying troops, most of whom were joining the convoy from the fighting under the shields, although many more flying troops remained behind to continue battling the humans below. A couple wooden ships also remailed above the shield, as did the Koopa Cruiser, but both Johnson and Roy knew that wouldn't be an effective defense should the final handful of F-18s come calling. The planes would relentlessly attack the shield, pushing the emitters to the extremes of their tolerances and weakening the forcefield – and if the panels suffered damage, that would hasten the collapse of the entire shield.

It was not a comforting thought, but Roy knew Bowselta's call was the right one – just as Wendy's idea to head off the tanks before they reached Roy was a good idea. He just hoped the good ideas panned out, because if they didn't, their odds of surviving the war would become much, much less.

-x-

The airships had barely passed by the time Wendy and Iggy reached the water. And just in time, too: two assault vehicles were nearing shore – and with them was a larger landing craft, filled with men.

"Yes, this is awesome," grinned Wendy.

"What? But we can't take down an entire shipload of men _and_ two tanks by ourselves," yelped Iggy. "We should call for backup."

"No time – it's up to us."

"But-"

"Wasting time!" admonished Wendy. "Stop whining and think of a way to stop them."

"What? But this was _your_ idea."

"Yeah, but _you're_ the genius."

Iggy couldn't argue with that one, so he merely snorted and turned back to the fast-approaching boats. He didn't have much time to think, but fortunately for him, a plan came to him quickly. "We'll electrocute them," he said. "Use your rings to slash open the hulls – you guys make cover fire with spells, then I'll zap them all." He then turned on his comm. "Morton – there's no water forces near here, are there?"

"How should I know?" growled Morton. "I can barely keep track of you lot, much less all the fish in the frickin' sea!"

Iggy cocked an eyebrow and turned off the radio link. "No need to be huffy," he commented.

"Guess Roy's not the only one who's '_fine_'," sneered Wendy as she readied her rings.

"Guess so…" agreed Iggy, although _he_ didn't find it amusing.

-x-

Too many screens.

Too much happening.

Roy was up against an entire platoon. Lemmy was chasing another helicopter. Larry was charging with some Beanish folk. Ludwig was up against an assault vehicle that somehow got all the way to the back hill. Bowser somehow managed to shake his Lakitu camerawoman – Morton made a mental note to reprimand her when this was all over. Assuming she came back, at least – he had already lost the first guy who had been following Larry and had to send in Iggy's as a replacement after he and Wendy joined up. They were getting ready to do… something. Morton would have to wait and see what it was. But Bowselta was fighting another helicopter so he had to watch that – oh, Bowser was there too, great: he should tell the camerawoman. How could she miss a guy that big anyway? Lemmy's chopper was smoking but still flying – how many more of those things were left? The amphibious assault ships still had some on deck, for crying out loud. The aircraft carrier too – and it looked like it was getting ready to launch more F-18s. Great – Morton should warn the guys in charge of the forcefield. Oh wait, that was him – and the Magikoopas. He should tell the Magikoopas behind him. If only those airships were making enough headway – then he wouldn't have to. One destroyer down, six to go, plus all the big ships. Not that the assault ships were much bigger than destroyers – but they were more pesky, what with all those assault vehicles they were spewing out. And the choppers. They needed to be stopped. But a wooden ship was falling to the sea. Roy was making progress. Lemmy's chopper was down. Bowselta's wasn't. Bowser's camerawoman wasn't back with him yet. Larry was falling back. Ludwig was charging. Junior was running somewhere. Was that Crystal he just past? What were Iggy and Wendy doing?

What was _Morton_ doing?

-x-

Twenty Magikoopa wands flashed and a wave of spinning shapes streaked out towards the landing craft and within them, a dozen deadly golden rings flashed in the sun. The humans fired at the onslaught, knowing no good would come of it hitting their vessel, but most of the danger was an illusion, and most of the bullets did nothing. The few real rings sliced through the hull like paper – men screamed as their legs were severed. The bottom of the boat was a red sea as seawater gushed in and soldiers cried in agony. They did not suffer long, as lightning split the blue sky above them, hitting the metal of the boat and flowing through the salt water.

Silence fell.

It was short lived – Iggy and Wendy were after the assault vehicles now. The tanks fired at the Koopalings, but the real targets were surrounded by decoys of light. Rings flew into the sea, passing below the surface, cutting the caterpillar treads and imbedding in the hulls. Small cracks were all that was needed. More lightning. More silence – save for the cheering of the Koopalings.


	27. Give and Take

Chapter 26: Give and Take

"Captain, one of airships got by the destroyers – she's approaching fast."

"They want to stop us from launching more Hornets," growled the captain of the _USS Zachary Taylor_. While the amphibious assault ships and the escorting destroyers had gone in close to try and minimize the amount of time the amphibious vehicles and landing craft had to brave the flying-piranha-filled waters, there had been no reason for the aircraft carrier to get anywhere near the beach. The only reason they were close to shore at all was because they didn't want to be too far from the protection of the destroyers – only one had remained with the _Taylor_. "So, we better get the birds in the air before they get here," decided the captain, then giving the official order to the bridge crew.

The aircraft carrier started moving, turning into the wind, which was blowing from the northeast. The airship had conveniently chosen to circle west to get past the group of smaller ships, and the Captain was confident he could get most of the F-18s off before it came within firing range.

-x-

Junior rushed the company of humans, a group of Koopas and a few Sarasalanders at his back. Many fell to the bullets, but Junior was protected by his Magikoopas and ran without fear. The line of humans broke as the young Dragon-Koopa and his soldiers came upon them. The Magikoopas dropped their forcefield to let Junior scrap – his armour was enough protection, and this allowed them to attack as well. While they used spells, Junior favoured his firebreath and hammerspace abilities, sending balls of flame and spinning hammers careening towards the humans he couldn't simply reach with his bare hands. He had the metal claws of his gloves extended, their razor-sharp blades making quick work of the humans' feeble clothing and the even thinner skin below it.

Suddenly the entire scene changed as a volley of mortars were blasted into their midst. Members of all species went flying in a cloud of fire, smoke and sand. Junior flipped in the air and landed on his feet, glaring as the amphibious assault vehicle rolled into view through the settling dust. His Magikoopa escort was gone – either stunned or dead, but Junior didn't need them. If Roy could take on three tanks at a time, if Iggy and Wendy could stop two, and if Ludwig could destroy one, then Junior could handle one tank as well. _Besides,_ he rationalized to himself, _no one's here to help me – and how am I supposed to run away?_

Pulling his old paintbrush from his hammerspace, Junior charged. He leapt into the air, flinging oily black goo all around to block their shot. He hit the tank with a ground-pound; he wasn't heavy enough to crush it completely, but he crunched the turret quite handily. The toxic graffiti spattered all over and around the vehicle, blinding any human who hadn't been knocked off by the shockwave. Ripping the writhing human out of the hatch, Junior dropped in a grenade he had lifted off a soldier earlier in the battle. He jumped, and the explosion sent him even higher. Putting the paintbrush away, Junior used his arms to fling down hammers, all around him. He landed back on the wreckage of the tank; the metal was hot, but he was used to volcanic rocks and could handle it for a moment to survey the area.

There was one human left. He was wearing a gas mask and other protective covers. Junior leapt towards him, spitting fireballs as fast as he could. Unfortunately for him, the man was wearing fire-resistant gear, and didn't reel from the flames. And, while the fireballs disabled the gun he was carrying, all they did was make the blade affixed to its muzzle white hot. Junior saw that the man wasn't falling back, but he didn't see the bayonet, and when he landed short of the man, he lunged forward to tackle him to the group, opening his mouth to continue with the fireball onslaught.

The man was waiting for that, and thrust the gun straight into Junior's mouth even as more flames spurted outward. Junior's momentum was the real reason the knife went so deep into the back of his throat. Jumping sideways to avoid the crushing mass of the Dragon-Koopa, the man twisted the gun, severing more flesh before the blade came clear of the jaws, which were now devoid of fire.

Junior landed on his side, his eyes wide in surprise as blood poured out of his mouth and filled his throat. He couldn't breathe, but he couldn't choke – he couldn't move, he couldn't feel anything below his neck. Had he not been Near Immortal, Junior would have been dead shortly after he hit the ground, but he was lucky. Instead, he lay, paralyzed and drowning in his own blood, while slowly, the screaming agony of the carving in his neck made itself noticed. But he _couldn't_ scream.

The man stared in horror down at the Dragon-Koopa. He knew it was the youngest of the Koopa Kingdom princes – that it was just a youngster. And it was suffering – it should be dead, but for some reason, its torture wasn't ending naturally. It was out of compassion, not malice that the man pulled out his sidearm and aimed between the Koopaling's eyes. "Sorry kid," he sighed, but before he could squeeze the trigger, the gun was blown out of his hand by a well-aimed Magikoopa spell. The next spell killed the man, and then the Magikoopa was at Junior's side, a second wizard at his heels. Junior was slipping away – they hadn't got there in time, and despite their best efforts, the youngest Koopaling finally fell into the cold black abyss of death.

But he was lucky – he was a Near Immortal, and while it was the first time he died, it wouldn't be the last.

-x-

The airship was not doing well. Its shield had been punctured many times by the destroyer and the F-18s that the aircraft carrier had managed to launch already, and more Hornets were on their way. But still the airship chased the _Taylor_, its crew giving their all to ensure the carrier went where it was supposed to. The progress was so riveting, Morton had been neglecting the other screens, but when he next went to do a sweep of the screen and caught sight of Junior's feed, his heart nearly stopped. All he saw was frantic Magikoopas and coppery blood.

-x-

"What?" screeched Bowselta as Morton's babbling filled her head. All she caught was "Junior" and "dead", but that was enough to get her full attention.

"He's been stabbed – right through the neck!"

"WHAT?" Bowselta gasped, colour draining from her face. Above her, Bowser was frozen, unbelieving.

"But- but not beheaded!" clarified Morton.

"Morton, you idiot, why didn't you start with that – you almost gave me a heart attack!" barked Bowselta. "You made it sound like he was-"

"Dead. I know, dead. But he _is_ dead."

"But not _dead_ dead, right?" interjected Bowser.

"He bled out and there was lots of damage and-"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

"NO! Look, gimme a sec – I'm still hearing in from the medics at the scene."

"But he's gonna live, right? They can bring him back to life and he's going to live, RIGHT?" demanded Bowser.

"Yes, yes – I think so."

"You _think_ so?" growled Bowselta.

"No, he is he is, yes yes, he's going to live!" clarified Morton. Growling with frustration as he tried to process at least three radio feeds at once. His parents screaming at him was not helping. "Okay," he added, "I just heard in – they're bringing him back to camp. He's still… not with us, but he's in no danger of _dying_ dying: the energy is stable… Oh, they fixed the severed spine and vertebrae before they moved him, so definitely no danger now."

"_Severed spine?_" gasped Bowselta. "How did someone land a blow that badly?"

"Bayonet in the mouth," said Morton – he at least knew that answer off the top of his spinning head.

All the Koopalings had been listening to the conversation between Morton and their parents, as it was being held on a channel open to the whole royal family as well as Kammy and the other Magikoopa escorts, and other trusted individuals like the Lakipas. The serendipity of a fatal injury befalling the one Koopaling who inherited Near Immortality was not lost on the group, but nevertheless, not one listener didn't wince when they heard what happened. It did not sound like a pleasant way to go – even if the going wasn't permanent – and from that point onwards, they all fought a little more fiercely, enraged over what happened to their little brother.

While she heard all she needed to hear about Junior for the moment, Bowselta wasn't finished with Morton, and turned her sights on the aircraft carrier on the horizon. She could see that the airship that was chasing it was in flames, even from her remote vantage point. "What's happening with the carrier?"

"Almost in position – but our airship's gonna blow any second," said Morton, turning back to the screen showing the chase out at sea, yet keeping his ears tuned-in to the continuing reports concerning his little brother.

"Is it close enough?"

"A few more seconds."

"Hear that, Kamek?"

"I hear you," said the ghost. He was floating inside the _Slug_, the Russian submarine Bowselta had used to return from earth nine years previously. With him was a crew of Boos, who worked the controls for the incorporeal ex-Magikoopa (including the comm). The _Slug_ was sitting in a crack in the seafloor with its nose aimed at the surface, patiently waiting for the aircraft carrier to pass over. The sub was hidden from the humans' sonar by its inactivity – it just seemed like part of the ocean floor, and it's not like the humans would be looking for something lurking below them anyway. Rather than risk the humans observing it sailing into the war zone, the submarine had been flown in from the Northern Fortress by one of the airships. At only 70 meters, it was a bit less than half the length of the 500-foot flying machine and so while the sight of the _Slug_ slung beneath the airship had certainly looked curious, it had not been a terrible burden for its carrier.

The _Slug_ was placed in the water near its destination, and as it descended to its hiding place, the airship sat at the surface making noise to mask the sound of the submarine. As reported by the Boos, the sonarmen heard the commotion and wondered what it was about, but soon forgot about. They didn't suspect that something had been left for them, and as the aircraft carrier and its lone destroyer escort raced against the burning airship, they had no idea they were sailing into a trap.

"You heard what happened to Junior?" asked Bowselta.

"Yes," said Kamek – he also had access to the Koopan royal family's private channel.

"Make them suffer for it," said Bowselta, the malice dripping from her voice like acid.

"Gladly," said Kamek – and he meant it. No one spilt the blood of Morton Koopa's grandchildren – of _Koopa's_ grandchildren. It was then the aircraft carrier came into range. "ALL AHEAD FULL!" barked Kamek, and the Boos echoed the order all down the submarine.

The _Slug_ had been left unmodified for years, in case Bowselta ever needed it to return to Earth. She knew that any change made to the engines or even the power systems would be audible to any humans that heard the sub, and the last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to her boat. But when she decided to use the _Slug_ in this ambush, some hasty changes had been made to beef up its acceleration, its speed, and its defense. As the sub rocketed off the bottom, it was clear the first two sets of modifications were a success.

-The _Taylor_-

"Captain! Submarine dead ahead!" yelped a sonarman.

"What?"

"It just appeared on the sonar – it must have been sitting on the bottom."

"A trap?" The Captain couldn't believe it.

-The _Slug_-

"Fire torpedoes!" ordered Kamek.

A stream of Torpedo Teds shot out of the _Slug_'s modified firing system, but rather than heading to the aircraft carrier, they fell back and formed a ring around the submarine. They were for defensive purposes only – but they weren't needed: the aircraft carrier didn't have torpedoes, and the destroyer was too far behind.

-The _Taylor_-

"It's directly below us!"

"Tell Captain Song to fire as soon as we're past," said the captain, confident that sub was too close to fire on them – and even if it could, it would take more than one torpedo to sink his _Nimitz_-class supercarrier.

"Sir, you don't understand," said the sonarman, her eyes wide in panic. "They're not passing us, they're coming straight up – they're going to ram us!"

-The _Slug_-

"Abandon ship!" ordered Kamek: they were close enough that the ship needed no further control – its target was dead ahead and had no hope of escape. They had timed their attack to the second.

The Boos around Kamek turned incorporeal and dove straight through the floor. As the _Slug_ rose as fast as it could go, the ghosts poured out of it from all directions, heading back down to the deep, dark water. Kamek only waited a moment before he made his own exit, willing himself to slide backwards as fast as the ship was going forwards. He closed his eyes as the _Slug_ passed through him, but in an instant, he was in the cool ocean, floating in place on his back. He made no move to correct this – he wanted to watch what happened next.

The _Slug_ wasn't just going to ram into the _USS Zachary Taylor_ – that wouldn't be enough to sink the supercarrier. To that end, Torpedo Teds weren't the only ballistics added to the _Slug_ – every inanimate Bob-omb and Bullet Bill in the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms had been loaded into the front sections of the submarine, along with all the Earth explosives that had been captured during the counter-invasion. The humans didn't know what was coming, but Kamek did, and grinned with grim satisfaction when the _Slug_ hit its target and illuminated the sea with a bright orange fireball.

-x-

The submarine had hit two thirds of the way down the _Taylor_, and the explosion blew the ship in two. An F-18 had just begun its launch when the _Slug_ hit, and the unfortunate plane was flung straight through the plume, catching fire itself and careening across the front half of the ship before exploding, spreading the flames far and wide. The command tower had been engulfed instantly and as the back third of the ship, still being propelled forward, crunched against the front portion, the structure collapsed altogether in a wave of secondary explosions – the missiles had burned. The few remaining F-18s that had been prepping to launch rolled to the edge of the listing flight deck and plunged into the water. Men and women scrambled to-and-fro, but even those that made it to the lifeboats were doomed, for the water below was now churning with carnivorous fish. The bulk of the underwater forces were still attacking the landing craft and assault vehicles in the shallows, but many had chosen to seek out an easier meal, and the sinking supercarrier promised them a buffet.

The airship had also crashed, but all eyes were on the aircraft carrier. A ship of her size had never been sunk on Earth, and the humans on the beach and in the flotilla of assault ships and destroyers could scarce believe their eyes. They radioed the lone destroyer that had been charged with protecting the carrier, but the crew could barely believe the story told by their sonar. It was nearly unthinkable that a submarine leapt off the bottom of the sea and hit square in the middle of the aircraft carrier as it passed _directly_ overhead. True, the airship had been chasing them in that direction, but it still seemed too perfect – and the fact that they lost their flagship to a long-shot ambush added insult to injury.

-x-

The Mushroom Worlders, however, didn't dwell on how lucky their success really was. The war was not over yet. Bowser and Bowselta were fighting off another helicopter, while above them, a burning wooden airship was desperately trying to fly past the shield before it lost too much altitude – if it crashed on the forcefield, the energy barrier might just give way. Meanwhile, Roy was having an easier time fighting off footsoldiers than tanks, but the reprieve might not last forever, as Iggy and Wendy struggled to hold their position. Humans who landed further down the beach had looped back around to try and clear the path from the water to the energy panels, and while the two Koopalings were not down and out yet, they knew they couldn't keep up the frantic fighting forever.

At the other end of the beach, Larry and the Beans were charging again, desperate to drive the humans further back from their own panels. The line of humans gave way, but not before firing a missile into the midst of the Mushroom Worlders. It was mostly Beanbean soldiers who went flying, but Larry had been close enough to be blasted into the air. Unlike the plant people, however, he was good with heat and sprung right back to his feet, looking wildly about to make sure the humans hadn't tried to advance after the hit.

The coast was clear, so he turned to help the fallen. Most were dead or dying, and this last blast had hit the Beanish General as well. "Sir!" gasped Larry, as the Bean coughed and feebly tried to pick himself up. The Koopaling fell to his knees and supported the green man's head. "A need a medic – the general's down!" he cried into his comm. Looking about desperately for help. His own Magikoopas were long gone – one by one, they had been killed or injured – mainly by large blasts that had now felled the general. Larry could see the battle in the sky above him – he knew more flying support was needed up there than down with him, but now he regretted it.

The Bean tried to speak, but only managed a sickly gurgle as dark bluish-green sap bubbled in his mouth. Larry's eyes were wide with panic – he had no idea what to do, but his quandary was short lived. The gargling stopped and the general went limp.

"General? Sir!"

"What is this being?"

Larry tore his eyes off of the general's blank face to find that the first responder to the scene was, of all people, Fawful.

"He's-"

"The general is having the _death_!" gasped the Bean, before taking to the skies, yelling at the top of his voice. "Death! Death! The general is having the death! Dead like a lightbulb that will not light! Dead! Death! Dead!"

"No… no…" Larry had a bad a feeling about what the news would bring. He paused only to close the general's eyes, and then he lifted the body up with as much dignity as he could manage and rushed back away from the front.

-x-

The Koopa Cruiser exploded above the shield, but the blast wasn't enough to vaporize the pieces and they came crashing down onto the forcefield. Morton knew sooner or later that would happen – his ships generally tried to back up past the shield when they found themselves slipping from the sky, but the Cruiser had cut it too close. Alarms sounded as the Magikoopas scrambled to compensate with power redirections, and it took all of Morton's self-control not to forsake the screens before him and help them. But his inner struggle was short-lived as the hulk slid down the side of the sparking green dome and hit the ground, collapsing onto the grass and falling away from the shield.

Responders hurried out to stop the flames, but the fire wasn't what worried Morton – by the sounds of the Magikoopa's panicked voices behind him, the shield might not survive that happening again. He wondered if he should order the remaining wooden ships to simply go behind the shield altogether – or in front. But after this latest kill, the F-18s were leaving – going to defend the human vessels from the three remaining forcefield-bearing airships. Already, one of the airships was heavily damaged from missile fire, but a second destroyer was now sinking and one more was taking significant damage from the airships. Not including the destroyer trying to rescue survivors from the _Taylor_ further out at sea, that meant three more destroyers were perfectly operational – plus both amphibious assault ships.

The numbers were not good. And then came the news of the Beanish General.

-x-

The body lay on the ground – the stretchers were needed for the injured for now. The Beans were visibly disheartened, and they were letting the humans get closer than they ever had before. "We need to stop them!" said Larry. "We need to rally another charge."

"They'll blast us again – who knows how many will die this time," said one Bean.

"If they knock out the energy panel, many WILL die," said Larry, swallowing his stage fright: there was too much at stake to _not_ speak up.

"How are you so sure? What good is the shield doing _us_, here in the trenches anyway?" said a small Beanie, while his brethren nodded in disgruntled agreement.

"Well, there'd be a lot more missiles raining down on us if there was no ceiling," said Larry.

"But are you sure? The human might not want to use that strategy."

"Yeah, their current strategy seems pretty effective," agreed a Troopea.

"They'd blast their own men with the missiles anyway."

"We're barely holding ground."

"Just wait until more choppers come."

"We're screwed."

"It's even worse to the east."

"ENOUGHING!" barked Fawful. Larry had been trying to get the Beanish soldiers' attention, but he hadn't been loud enough, and was actually relieved when the petulant red-cloaked Bean took the wheel. "Do not have the giving up yet! The lady who is fat like a well-fed pig of pinkness has not been singing! We must have fighting still!"

"He's right," said Larry, before the soldiers could protest – Fawful may be good at grabbing attention but he was an outlaw and Larry worried his word would not have much sway. "We can still win this. The aircraft carrier's sunk – that evens the odds."

"No more helicopters?" said one soldier hopefully.

Larry knew the answer was 'no', and he knew that in all likelihood, the carrier had gotten most of its F-18s in the air before its demise anyway, but he knew better than to share that knowledge. "Yes," he lied. "There might still be some around, but like I said, they lost a lot of their advantage. Their leader was probably killed too – and rather than let our loss stop us, we should take advantage of their loss."

"Yes! We must be beating them back! They are like a chicken without a head who runs around like a fool, but we are like a worm that can live without a head! Be like a worm and devour the compost of human resistance!"

Larry could see the fighting spirit returning to the Beans. It didn't matter if it was founded on lies – what mattered was that he took it and ran with it. "We can't let them win! We- we have to win – for our fallen comrades!"

"YEAH!" chorused the Beanish soldiers.

"Come on!" cried Larry, turning towards the front. "For my brother! For the general! For the world! Let's CHAAAARGE!"

"CHAAAAAARRRRRGE!" the Beans surged forward again, following Larry over the hill they had been taking shelter behind. All around them, other groups of Beanish soldiers and their allies took up the charge as well. But above it all, Fawful's voice rang out the loudest.

"WE HAVE FURY!"


	28. Last Legs

Chapter 27: Last Legs

"I found him! Mom, I found him! He's on one of the assault ships – the eastern one. It's General Powell!"

"He wasn't on the aircraft carrier?"

"I was surprised too, but I've been monitoring their radio chatter. I wanted to know who was calling the shots now – but if it's him, that definitely explains why the loss of the _Taylor_ hasn't dampened their fighting spirit."

"Well, we'll just have to fix that," sneered Bowselta. They had hoped that by destroying the supercarrier, they would also kill the human ringleaders and demoralize them enough to get the survivors to surrender – or at the very least, lose some of their coherency and drive. When the fighting went on without even skipping a beat over the lost flagship, she figured she had merely underestimated the resolve of Powell's men. Evidentially, she had merely underestimated Powell's desire to be in the thick of the action. She turned on her comm – setting it so that her whole family could hear. "Bowser – get over here, we're going to go pay Powell a visit. Ludwig – I'm afraid you're going to have to defend the hilltop all by yourself."

"Zat's fine – zee frequency of assaults is starting to slow anyvay. Vee're wearing zem down."

"I'm sure they're saying the same thing about us," growled Bowselta darkly, but Bowser was fast approaching, so she wrapped up the conversation. "Just take care – if this works, you won't have to fight for much longer. None of you will." With that she leapt straight up into the air as high as she could, landing squarely on the back edge of Bowser's non-clown Car. There wasn't enough room for both of them to ride within the chopper, so Bowselta stayed perched on the back, but bent over enough to grip the rim of Bowser's shell for support. She leaned further down, bringing her head close to the side of Bowser's face. "Step on it."

Bowser grinned up at his wife as she raised her head up. "Gwa ha ha, it's stompin' time!" With that, he doubled the 'Car's speed. The rim was at a downward angle, giving them a clear view of the chaotic battlefield whizzing past below them. They were already surrounded by a flight of Magikoopa bodyguards, but by the time Bowser dipped under the sparkling green edge of the shield, many more flying troops had joined them, eager to aid the Koopa King and Queen as they took the battle to the humans. Two assault vehicles were near shore and opened fire on the group, but the Magikoopas deflected the bullets with a shield and Bowser quickly increased the 'Car's altitude. The group climbed with him, but not long after they were out of range of the humans below, they were nearing the bigger ships.

There were only two airships left, and four destroyers, although one was heavily damaged. The airships had been given orders to cover for Bowser and Bowselta, but clearly the destroyers had their own orders to stop the Koopas, for an enemy vessel was sitting directly between the 'Car and the assault ship it needed to reach. One of the airships had already engaged the destroyer, its red lasers flashing and its shields crackling as it was pelted with missiles. Bowser made to make a wide loop around the battle, but another destroyer appeared behind the first, moving to intercept. The second airship was on the other side of the assault ship and would be no help, but this destroyer was the damaged one and Bowser hoped that at the very least, the heavy smoke would make it harder for the humans to target the small 'Car.

Unfortunately, the destroyer still had many weapons systems online and soon the group found themselves under fire. Missiles screamed through the air and the group scattered. Bowselta gripped Bowser as tight as she could as he twisted the 'Car through the air, willing it to go faster, pushing it to its limits. Explosions in the air told them that some of their company had met gristly ends, and now they were in range of the ship's smaller guns. Kammy and some other Magikoopas had managed to keep on Bowser's tail and their wands were all raised and lit, conjuring the strongest shielding spells they knew between the Koopas and the destroyer. Shells whizzed by, and then one hit the shield, shattering its protection, but losing all its black energy in doing so and falling harmlessly down to the sea.

The Magikoopas hurried to try and reconjure the spell as more shots filled the sky. Then a red laser beam sliced through the air below them, cutting the destroyer's gatling gun in two and taking out the bridge in one go. The airship was now directly above the first destroyer, only using its Bullet Bills to defend itself, while using the longer-range lasers to continue to protect its monarchs. It was suffering for its loyalty: the forward shields were clearly gone as missiles pounded the belly of the ship. Bowselta suspected the engines were damaged too, for the ship was losing altitude – but at least it would take the destroyer below it down too, and its interference had allowed the 'Car to pass the second destroyer. It was a straight run to Powell's assault ship now – the other destroyers were on its far side, with the other assault ship and the last airship.

Unfortunately, the assault ship had missiles too. And air support. Once more, Bowser took to evasive maneuvers to try and dodge the missiles, while the Magikoopas hastily casted a shield above them to block out the hail of bullets from the F-18 now diving down from above. Bowser was busy flying, but Bowselta was free to defend and returned fire – literally. Her flames passed harmlessly through the Magikoopa's barrier and while she couldn't hope to hit the F-18, the fire blocked its shot and it broke off.

They were almost at the assault ship when their luck ran out and a missile smashed into the 'Car. Bowselta's footing slipped when the helicopter was sent tumbling, but her grip on Bowser's shell didn't fail.

"Rrrrraaaahhh!" growling with effort, Bowser managed to level off the helicopter, but it was nothing more than a controlled crash as they slipped through the air.

"We can make it to the ship!" insisted Bowselta, stepping back onto the rim. "Just get it to go forwards – we have enough height left!"

Bowser was shaking his head. He was urging the 'Car forwards as fast as it could go, but it wasn't limping fast enough. "No, we're not going to make it."

"We are!"

"We can't!"

"You can!" Kammy and the other Magikoopas had been blasted away by the explosion that crippled the 'Car, but she had regained her wits and hurried to return to the Koopas. Her wand tip glowed and though it was a strain on her aging body, she added her best levitation magic to the damaged capabilities of the 'Car. The assault ship was firing again, but more Magikoopas appeared and blasted at the missiles, detonating them before they could reach their target. The air was thick with smoke as the 'Car finally smashed onto the flight deck of the assault ship. This time, Bowselta was knocked totally free and Bowser was also flung out of the 'Car, but both were back on their feet instantly, and making a break for the command tower in the middle of the vessel.

-x-

"They're on board!" Morton reported, breathing a sigh of relief. Unlike the second assault ship, which had pretty much expended all its resources, Powell's ship still had a smattering of helicopters on its deck, not to mention platoons of men that Bowser and Bowselta would have to fight through, but Morton had faith in them. The airship that had covered for them was gone – it had crashed onto the first destroyer, and the other destroyer was in a sorry state. But its replacement was hurrying back from the _Taylor_'s sinking wreckage, and would be joining the last two destroyers shortly. With only wooden airships as _its_ backup, the lone forcefield-bearing airship's odds were not good.

-x-

Bowselta dashed across the deck, fire leaping from her jaws to cover herself. Bowser was close behind, making a beeline for the nearest helicopter. The chopper was warming up to take off, and then men on board fired at Bowser as he approached, but the King of the Koopas would not be stopped, and plowed a fist deep into the side of the aircraft. A follow-up fireball sealed the deal, but before the chopper could explode, Bower had sent it flying with a final punch, and it exploded against another helicopter.

-x-

The chopper above Ludwig burst into flames courtesy of a well-aimed blast of fire, but the eldest Koopaling was far from out of the woods. Turning, he sprinted towards an assault vehicle nearing the crest of the hill. They saw him coming and opened fire, but his Magikoopas blocked the shells and in an instant, Ludwig was in the air above the tank. Like Roy, a ground pound was all it took to fatally damage the vehicle, and spinning once more, Ludwig disappeared in a flash of lightning. He reappeared further down the hill before a second tank, still spinning. The vehicle was awash with sparks from the Koopaling's appearance, but destruction came in the form of Koopa's staff, as Ludwig swung it 'round and let loose a massive blast of magic, sending the tank careening back down the hill. He heaved a sigh of relief, but it was short lived: a platoon of men were chasing medics up the hill a bit further on, and too tired to teleport again, Ludwig had no choice but to also make a run for it. He couldn't keep it up much longer.

-x-

Bowselta raced past the burning helicopters with her Magikoopa escort conjuring up a forcefield for good measure, but it was unnecessary – Bower had been sure to _not_ aim the exploding helicopter at his wife. Bowselta was halfway to the tower, but a barrage of heavy artillery stopped her in her tracks, and she quickly took shelter beside another parked helicopter. Dropping to the ground, she sent a stream of fire under the helicopter's belly, catching the men by surprise and burning many pairs of feet. Then men screamed and fell, and then they screamed no more, but they were not all taken this way, and the survivors screamed with rage.

-x-

Larry scrambled up the edge of the valley, vaulting over the row of ruined Blasters at its top and sprinting across the pockmarked land as he chased the humans. They had broken through the Beanish army and were making quick work of any backup defense as they made a mad dash for the energy panels – but Larry was a faster sprinter, and he was catching up. He blasted flames at the men, catching the stragglers and causing the leaders to turn and open fire. Larry dove into a shallow pit as the bullets whizzed overhead. Breathing fire as defense now, he leapt back up, but the lead humans were out of range again, leaving their injured behind. Every muscle in Larry's body screamed in protest as he ran on and on, but he couldn't stop. The energy panels were just beyond the next ridge, and while the Koopatrol guards would buy some time, if the Koopaling didn't get there fast enough, all was lost.

-x-

"RRAAAAHHHH!" Bowselta looked around as Bowser came charging through the blaze of his last chopper kill – it was clear he was planning to do something similar to this one. Bowselta hopped to her feet and backed out of the way as Bowser smashed into the helicopter. She then added to the forward thrust with a blast of fire, and Kammy and the other Magikoopas with them followed suit with a wave of spells. The chopper flew far and then rolled, flattening the humans that had evaded Bowselta's attack, and finally busting into flames as the gas ignited.

-x-

Slipping and stumbling on the remains of hundreds of Piranha Plants and other assorted carcasses, Lemmy barreled down on the landing craft that had just reached the shore. He knew he had added his fair share of enemies to the horrors underfoot, but Lemmy was long since numbed to the sickening reality of the war around him. He didn't even think twice as he came in range of the open landing craft and sent a stream of flames at the humans already spilling across the threshold. He had no choice: they had to die, or more would die, and he had to lead the charge. The humans sent volleys of machine gun fire back at the Koopaling, the Magikoopas who protected him and the troops who were helping them. Many of the people around Lemmy fell, and the shield before him was starting to destabilize, but still he recklessly charged forward, still he valiantly burned the enemies before him, still he soullessly killed, killed, killed.

-x-

Bowser and Bowselta were off again – skirting the edge of the inferno and heading for the tower. There were no more helicopters on this side of the ship to offer protection, but there were choppers on the other side of the command tower, and one of them was lifting off. But that's not all it was doing, as it turned to face the Dragon-Koopas, aimed, and emptied its missile banks. It didn't matter if it destroyed even more of the ruined flight deck – the monsters needed to be stopped. The Koopas saw the attack coming at the last second, but there was no cover to dive behind, and not enough time to dodge.

-x-

Wendy and Iggy were in trouble. Driven into the water by an assault vehicle that had looped around behind them, they could no longer use electricity to ward off the humans, who were closing in on all sides. The Magikoopas tried to block the onslaught of gunfire, but the forcefields were swiftly shattered by missiles launched by a passenger on a tank approaching from the sea, and a cloud of bullets sealed the armour-less wizards' fates. Iggy and Wendy were more fortunate, but not by much as they were surrounded by enemies, who knew well enough to stay out of range of Wendy's magic. All was not lost, however, and using his Zapper, Iggy managed to blast away the humans further along the beach and he and Wendy made a run for it, the assault vehicles turning to follow. There were more footsoldiers rushing to close the gap, but Wendy already had some rings prepared and flung them as soon as they got close enough – but she never saw them hit, as another missile exploded beneath their feet. The Koopalings screamed as they were flung into the air, spinning helplessly before crashing back down to the shallows.

-x-

Surrounded by fire and bits of debris from the ship's surface, Bowselta tumbled across the flightdeck, her claws gaining traction only a few meters away from the edge. She pulled herself up and ran back forwards. A few of the missiles had been hit by a desperate volley of spells and firebreath and detonated early enough to not do much harm to the group, but others had hit home and any forcefield erected by the Magikoopas had been overwhelmed. A couple lay dead, while others looked merely stunned, having been blasted backwards across the deck or knocked skyward. Kammy was shakily getting to her feet behind Bowser, who was doubled over. Resisting the urge to check on him, Bowselta ran past, aiming to take down the helicopter that had launched the attack.

It was already turning away, but that's what Bowselta wanted. Jumping up to gain what little extra altitude she could, she pulled out two knives from her hammerspace and threw them as hard as she could at the tail rotor of the helicopter. She wasn't sure if one or both of them hit their mark, but the tail rotor was instantly shattered, and without any counter-rotation to offset the top blades, the helicopter began to spin out of control and crashed back down onto the deck of the assault ship.

Her bloodlust satisfied, Bowselta turned back to check on Bowser. Kammy was dabbing healing potion to the exposed parts of Bowser's snout, which had been badly burned by the explosion. But more shocking was the fact that he had ripped off the front of his armour.

"What are you _doing_?" gasped Bowselta.

"It's bent – I couldn't breathe right," said Bowser, indicating the discarded chest plate. Bowselta could see it as she got closer – the enchanted metal really had been dented. "Took a missile directly to the chest. I'm just glad I'm used to fireballs in the face or this would be _very_ painful," Bowser pointed to his snout.

"You can't run around like that – you're way too exposed."

"Not when I've got Kammy," said Bowser, hooking an arm around the witch's middle, under her arms, and holding her against his bare chest. Between that and the electric blue potion slowly evaporating off his face, Bowser looked _quite_ ridiculous.

But Bowselta didn't have time for that. "Be careful!" she hissed, before turning and running towards the tower. More humans had emerged from its base, but Bowselta did away with them with a blast of fire. There were men higher up the tower firing on her now, but once again, fire was the answer as Bowselta passed beneath them and slipped inside the ship. The tunnels were narrow, but Bowselta knew how to twist and turn through tight spaces, both from her years as the cat-burgling Shadow Thief, and also her time on the claustrophobic _Slug_. Besides, it was a fairly straight path up to the bridge – nice and clear, with no where for the humans in the hall to cower from the jets of fire Bowselta used to clear her path.

-x-

Morton breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his parents and Kammy survived the surprise attack – any minute now, they'd be confronting Powell. And it was a good thing too. Iggy and Wendy were surrounded, Larry was desperately fighting to save the western energy panels, Roy and Ludwig were visibly wearing down, and Lemmy was acting like he just didn't care if he got himself killed anymore. Meanwhile, out at sea, the final forcefield-bearing airship was on its last legs, although it had at least managed to take the last of the F-18s and one more destroyer down with it. But as he surveyed the view of the remaining four human ships, he spotted something else on the horizon behind them. _No… no it can't be_, he shook his head in horror, trying to convince himself he was wrong – that he was mentally exhausted and seeing things, but the gasps from the Magikoopas at his side as they too noticed the feed told him that it was no illusion. They were all in deep, deep trouble.

-x-

In no time, Bowselta reached the bridge, and butting through the locked door like it was nothing, she burst into the room, fire already springing from her jaws as she took down the two armed guards. As she turned to face the rest of the humans on the bridge, trying to figure out which one was her quarry, Kamek appeared in one of the shadowy corners of the bridge. After he destroyed the _Taylor_, Kamek had gone scouting to find the third in command, figuring the amphibious assault ships would be the best bet. To his surprise, he found Powell, alive and well and decided to wait patiently for the Koopas to come and get him. He figured that having someone to point out exactly who they were after would be helpful – plus, he wanted another slice of the action.

"That's Powell!" he said, pointing to the greying, square-jawed man at the front of room. It was all Bowselta needed to hear, and she sprung into action, but Kamek's shout had brought the humans out of their shock and men all over were drawing their side arms. In a flash, Bowselta roasted all the other humans, spitting fire this way and that as she lunged towards Powell. The general also had his gun out and pointed it at the attacking Dragon-Koopa, but before he had a chance to fire, the front window to his left was smashed in. While Bowselta could fit through the corridors, Bowser could not and so he had climbed the outside of the ship. But before he could come through the window and present Powell with a nice clear chest shot, Bowselta had knocked the gun out of the distracted man's hand and pinned him against a control panel, her sword at his throat.

"Surrender," snarled Bowselta. "Call off the attack and I'll let you live – I'll let you _all_ live!"

Powell sneered. He wouldn't even dignify the beast with a response, and with his last breath, he spat into the Koopa Queen's face.

The Queen reacted too fast for the man, however, and the spit merely spattered against her breastplate. But it was the thought that counted, and in response, Bowselta sliced open the general's neck with a swift movement of her sword, drenching herself in a spate of warm crimson blood that instantly washed away the spit from her chest.

Contemptuously pushing the body off the control panels, letting it thud onto the floor at Bowser's feet, Bowselta strode over to the steering controls and activated her comm. "Morton, Powell was a bust – find out who's _next_ down the chain of command. Hopefully they'll be more cooperative. In the meantime, I'm going to ram this sucker into the other assault ship."

"No, no – it's too late!" cried Morton in a panic. "He's here!"

"What? Who's where?" said Bowselta, paling.

"Travali! The other fleet! It's here – to the south!"

"WHAT!" bellowed Bowser, rushing over to the port windows. They were very far out, but what else could the shapes on the horizon be? "There's something out there!"

"Good – if Travali is here, he takes command and we can reason with _him_," said Kamek.

"Or so you say," said Bowselta.

"I'd bet my life on it – were I still alive, of course," said Kamek dryly.

"Well, either way, we have to try," said Bowselta. "Is the interference still preventing communication with them or are they in range?"

"He's already hailing you, actually," said Morton. "…Well, he's hailing _Powell_, but you've sorta supplanted him, so-"

"Yeah yeah," said Bowselta. "Bowser, take the helm; I've got us pointed at the other assault ship, but let's give Travali a chance to call off the war before we go crunching up his little boats. Why throw away a nice bargaining tool?" As Bowser took over the controls, Bowselta went back to the bloodstained control panel, There was indeed a light flashing, and after a couple tries, she finally go the right channel open.

"General Powell? General Powell, please respond. This is Vice-Admiral Travali. Are you there?"

"Powell is dead," replied Bowselta. "You're speaking to Bowselta, Queen of the Koopas, and leader of this army of Koopas, Mushroomians, Beans and Sarasalanders. We killed your general, sank your aircraft carrier and I'm about to do the same to your assault ships if you don't call off the foolhardy attack on our world. You hear me? Surrender or all your men will die!"

"Please, listen, there's been a terrible mistake," said Travali. "Well no, I suppose that's not true. There has been a terrible _deception_, I should say. I had no idea this war was even happening. I have been unable to reach the _Taylor_ fleet since the transmission from your Queen Koopa."

"That was not our doing," snapped Bowselta.

"Of course not – it was Powell, I suspect. The _Taylor_ contained technology meant to block out radio signals. It was meant to be a weapon used against enemies of our world, not against each other."

"Well, the _Taylor_ is not jamming anything anymore, so tell your men to stand down or suffer the consequences!"

"Of course, of course. We're transmitting the codes as we speak," said Travali. Indeed, another screen on the control panel was now blinking and a printer soon jumped into action, spitting out the official command to stand down. The same order was broadcasted to the other ships, and while his fleet was still far out, they were blinking the order in Morse Code as well.

But that wasn't enough for Bowselta – she wanted everyone to know immediately. "Admiral, we have equipment that can deliver your message all across the beach – loudspeakers, even video feed if you have it. I want the fighting to end NOW – waiting for the news to trickle through the ranks isn't good enough. I'll tell my troops to stop fighting when yours do."

"Yes, of course. No video, I'm afraid, but I'll be happy to be put on the loudspeakers," said Travali, as eager to end the bloodshed as the Koopa Queen.

"Okay – Morton?"

"Yep, we're all set," said the Koopaling, any fatigue he had been feeling was gone as his fingers flew across the keyboards before him. "Fire away, Vice-Admiral, sir!"

-x-

"_This is Vide-Admiral Bill Travali. Security code 6-7-8-4-Tango-Charlie-Alpha. All forces stand down! Repeat, stand down! As of this moment, I am seizing control of this operation, and effective immediately, the feud between us and the citizens, governments and militias of the Mushroom World is over. All ships have received official orders to this effect, but this transmission is for the benefit of the soldiers in the field. The fighting must end now. Stand down, repeat, stand down!_" Travali's radio broadcast echoed over the entire beach, and over the speakers of the doomship and the surviving wooden airships above the sea and forcefield. It was heard in the camps and it was even picked up by the human ships.

Once Travali's message was transmitted, Bowselta added her piece. "_This is Bowselta Koopa, Queen of the Koopas. Warriors of the Mushroom World – the war is over! Do as the humans are doing and stand down._" She didn't explicitly say it, but her phrasing indicated for her troops to wait to make sure the humans were stopping their attacks before lowering their own weapons. "_Let the fighting come to an end – the battle is won, our freedom is secure – our world is safe!_"

Bowselta's last words were for show more than anything, for the troops didn't need any more convincing. As the general spoke, the humans had obeyed almost instantly. The assault vehicles ground to a standstill and opened their hatches, while the footsoldiers threw down their guns, many even standing clear of the scare cover to be found on the beach, their arms raised in a sign of peace. A few of the men were twisted by the thirst for the power and a love of violence, as Griggs and Powell had been, and considered disobeying the convenient arrival of the Vice-Admiral. But, seeing that the overwhelming majority of their comrades were not so inclined, they relented, lowering their guns and hiding their scowls.

But the predominant mood on the beach was joy and relief. Mushroom Worlders of all species could scarce believe their ears – could scarce believe their eyes as the humans stopped firing at them. As Travali spoke, the guns fell silent, and the beach was still save for the medics who could not afford to stop as they listened. For an instant, only the voices of Travali and Bowselta, the engines of the airships at sea and the sound of the wind and the waves were heard, but as Bowselta finished up her speech and Morton dropped the shield, a new sound rippled across the beach. Cheering.

And it wasn't just the beach. All across the Mushroom Continent and all the outlying islands, the people were celebrating. The entire progress of the battle had been transmitted, from Bowselta's initial speech until her final word, and the world rejoiced as they realized the war was over – that they were saved. Everywhere, people were jumping and whooping for joy. Cheers of "It's over!" and "We won!" filled the streets from Dark Land to the Beanbean Kingdom and beyond.

But nowhere was more energized than the battlefield. Even as they stood upon blooddrenched sand dunes, the Mushroom World forces cheered and crowed. Koopas and Toads who had been fighting side by side now stood and embraced, delirious with happiness that the horror was over and they were alive to see it. Paratroopas were doing cartwheels in the skies and fish were doing backflips above the waves. The surviving wooden airships were blasting their horns, and the Magikoopas were sending up sparks of celebration. Watching it all on the monitors, Morton would have loved to join them in their wild abandon, but there was work to be done – Bowselta and Travali were already discussing how to organize the humans' withdrawal, and Morton had to help.

The other Koopalings, however, weren't so fettered. Shrieking with happiness, Wendy nearly knocked Iggy over with a surprise hug, before releasing him and splashing in the water with reckless abandon like a kid. Further inland, Roy merely sighed with relief as his men threw their helmets in the air and cheered, and upon the hill, Ludwig's reaction was similarly stoic, as he leaned on his staff and smiled wearily at the celebration below him, as far as the eye could see. Surrounded by the revelry, Lemmy merely blinked in the sun for a moment, until slowly, the realization that he wouldn't have to kill anyone anymore sunk in, and running a hand through his shortened hair, he laughed aloud – an anguished laugh to say the least, but he was smiling nonetheless. At the far end of the beach, covered in human blood from the vicious fight that capped his mad dash across the beach, Larry nearly collapsed before the energy panel that had so narrowly avoided destruction. He didn't mind that mere moments after he had slayed the last human insurgent, peace had been called and the forcefield deactivated anyway – the important part was that they _turned_ it off, rather than losing it. The important part was that it was over on their terms, the important part was that they won. _They won._

Even some members of the losing team felt their spirits lifting amidst the celebration. The fighting was done, and if Bowselta spoke the truth, they would be going home soon – those facts alone would be enough cause for some positively even without the infectious gaiety of the creatures around them. Of course, many were angry that they had sacrificed so much for nothing while other felt robbed of a sure victory, but others, like the Mushroom Worlders, were just happy to be alive. There was also comfort to be taken in the fact that while they couldn't take the new world for their own, they knew that even if Bowselta was lying about having no interest in Earth, their world would be able to defend itself against the monsters beyond the portal. It was only their low numbers that brought about their defeat, reasoned some, but others weren't so cynical. Their world was safe from invaders, but now, so was this one, and in a way, perhaps that really was the happiest outcome that the war could have seen.


	29. Aftermath

**A/N: This only really applies to all of one line in the following few paragraphs, but I feel the need to explain that I consider **_**Donkey Kong Country Returns**_** to take place way after the original run of **_**DK**_** games. This means that the DK of the old games (and of **_**Super Koopas**_**) is **_**DKCR**_**'s Cranky Kong, and his "young family" that I mention here is, namely, his son, the new DK of **_**DKCR**_**. I just couldn't help but throw in one last case of linking the games and my stories before wrapping things up, but I didn't want to spend too much time explaining it in-story, so I made this A/N instead. That is all.**

Chapter 28: Aftermath

Once the threat of destruction and the strain of keeping track of his entire family had been lifted from his shoulders, Morton found himself at the top of his game once more as he directed the clean up efforts across the beach. Even the humans were listening to his instructions, as ordered by Vide-Admiral Travali, and he put them to work. The tents around the doomship were filling up as every able-bodied soldier from all five participating armies helped ferry in the injured and carry out the dead. Bodies were lain in the fields behind the beach, and while some effort being made to keep nationalities together, the pressing need to return and help the living resulted in Koopas, Mushroomians, Sarasalanders Beans and Earthlings being mixed together more often than not. Once the injured were no longer being brought in, Morton would direct the soldiers to bring in the bodies from the beach and add them to those who had died in the tents, at which point a more concerted effort to organize the macabre field out back would be made. But that wasn't for some time, and for now, all that could be done was close glassy eyes, drape pieces of cloth over the more gruesome scenes and avoid stepping on the deceased – or pieces thereof.

While they were not treated like captured prisoners in the slightest, the humans who were already on the beach or who arrived on shore afterwards were asked to leave their toxic weaponry behind on the assault vehicles and landing craft that lined up on the water's edge. Many soldiers were reluctant parting with their guns, knowing full well that the knives they _were_ allowed to keep would not be an effective defense should the creatures around them renege on their half of the ceasefire, but orders were orders, and Travali knew the issue was non-negotiable. While more airships were on their way (most of them carrying all the humans that had been captured during the counter-invasion, so that they could be safely returned to their people), with the arrival of Travali's fleet, the humans could easily overpower the Mushroom Worlders gathered on the beach.

As well as his supercarrier, the _USS Warren C. Harding_, and the four dozen aircraft she carried, Travali also brought four more amphibious assault ships and half a dozen destroyers to the Mushroom Continent. His eight landing craft had all been taken, however, as had many assault vehicles and helicopters, for unlike Griggs, the forces encountered by Travali's fleet were much keener on fighting than trying to make peace. Most of the Alligator Archipelago was inhabited by tribal animal nations and lorded over by the Kremlings, who relentlessly attacked the strange human fleet that threatened their dominion just by being there.

There _were_ a few civilized settlements in the archipelago, with Brooklyn being the largest, but these were much deeper within the island chain, and would not have contacted the fleet until Travali was at their doorstep. By not bringing attention to themselves, they had hoped to put off their capture as long as possible, giving the forces of good that had always stopped the evil of their world more time to finally emerge and save the planet again. Even the aging hero of the land, Donkey Kong, chose to bide his time: he, Diddy and most of their other kinsfolk had young families to take care of, and they were unwilling to put their lives on the line until Donkey Kong Island itself was threatened.

And so, without even the Kongs taking up arms, it had fallen to the villains to defend the archipelago, and while the Kremling ships were easily sunk by Travali's destroyers, the creatures themselves would swim from their wrecks to the human vessels, where the fighting was much more messy. The Kremlings didn't have any defenses against the bullets, but unless they were hit in a vital spot, they could usually take a couple shots before succumbing. As a result of this resilience, the giant crocodiles managed to sink the landing craft, damage a lot of technology aboard the larger ships, and take down many humans in their sieges. Travali had tried to reason with the Kremlings at first, but when he was met with naught but violence, he had no choice but to order his men to defend themselves with any means possible. But decimating Kremling resistance and targeting their strongholds was as offensive as Travali got. He would not burn the islands and slaughter the animals that merely fled from his fleet, even though a scorched-earth policy would have allowed him to progress much more quickly, as Griggs had in the north.

Travali's slow progress had been a source of chagrin for Griggs at first, but when he learned that there were, in fact, civilized settlements in the Alligator Archipelago, he realized the snail's pace of his second-in-command was a blessing in disguise. Griggs had known that Travali wouldn't approve of his genocidal quest to avenge his brother, and he knew that his intensifying desire to forsake Earth and take over the magical Mushroom World would have gone over even worse. So, to make his life easier, and possibly even avoid a mutiny, Griggs had fed Travali a stream of lies to keep him complacently killing Kremlings in the south. He told the Vice-Admiral that he too was met with vicious resistance and that any radio broadcasts Travali might hear that said otherwise was propaganda and lies.

Whenever Travali tried to reason that the animals (anthropomorphic or otherwise) were merely defending their home and posed no threat to Earth, Griggs claimed that the nations _he_ was up against were advanced enough to be able to invade the human world. And, saying they had machinations to do just that, he had urged Travali onwards, lest any other warlike nations were buried within the predominantly primitive Alligator Archipelago. However, once he knew there _were_ more advanced colonies within the island chain, he had stopped emphasizing the need for a speedy invasion, instead, lauding Travali for his slow yet thorough investigation of the world before him. After all, once Travali did reach Brooklyn or another such settlement, he would have immediately been informed by the surrendering humans that Griggs had lied, and that the Kremlings' aggression was the exception, not the rule in the harmless Mushroom World.

The longer it took for Travali to uncover the truth the better, since Griggs had known he would make a stink and he didn't want to risk anyone mutinying on him until he was securely entrenched in the Mushroom Continent. In the end, it was the botched execution and Koopa's speech that had opened Travali's eyes, but before the Vice-Admiral could assume his rightful command and put an end to Griggs' monstrous war, Powell cut off communication between the fleets (and told the soldiers it was the Mushroom Worlders' fault). He had come too far to give up on the dream he shared with Griggs and the other trusted flag officers beneath them, and he had been sure he could reclaim the Mushroom Continent before Travali could show up in person and turn the soldiers against him.

Powell had known that many of the troops would go along with him no matter what: they too wanted the power of the world coursing through their veins again, and they knew that after the atrocities they committed on the Mushroom World, nothing good awaited them back on Earth anyway. Others, however, were merely following orders – it didn't matter what they were doing, or was making them do it, be it Griggs, Powell or Travali. And still others would jump at the opportunity to join Travali and return to Earth, gladly undoing everything they had been fighting for – that their own comrades had died for, and then placing the blame squarely on Griggs, the madman twisted by rage and greed. The men who would denounce their later leader so readily had made Powell sick, but he needed them – he needed _all_ the soldiers if he hoped to recapture the Mushroom Continent.

After that, it wouldn't have mattered if the men learned the truth. He would have been happy to see the back of the cowards who would blame it all on their superiors, and anyone who wanted to follow the true top dog rather than the mutineer could go with them for all he cared. Once he had crushed the Mushroom Worlders, killed their leaders and taken their powerful Meteor, the world would have been his, no questions asked – he wouldn't have _needed_ all the soldiers at that point. The true loyalists would stay by him, especially once he had sweetened the deal with power from the Meteor, and that alone would have been enough to ensure dominion over whatever feeble resistance could still be mustered by the broken continent. The only other force to be reckoned with would have been Travali, but Powell had been confident that while the Vice-Admiral would stop the invasion and sound a retreat if he could, he wouldn't go so far as to attack his fellow Americans over an alien world.

Piece by piece, Bowselta and Travali put the full story of the invasion together, with help from information provided by the captains of the surviving _Taylor_ group ships, as they had been in on Griggs' and Powell's scheming. Disgusted, Travali relieved them of duty, and promised the Koopa Queen that justice would be served to all those who willfully set out to conquer the innocent Mushroom World. It did not take them long, and by the time the _USS Harding_ had joined the remnants of the _Taylor_ group, they had figured out exactly why and how everything had happened.

While Travali's troops had suffered many casualties at the hands of the Kremlings, he still had many helping hands to spare, and once he was close enough to shore, he wanted to fly over with the first batch of medics. Knowing that their own chopper had been downed, leaving them stuck on the amphibious assault ship, he offered to pick up Bowser and Bowselta on the way. He knew nothing he could do would make up for Griggs and Powell's actions, but he wanted to at least try his best. Still, he didn't blame the Koopas for being wary of his offer, and hastened to try and show that his intentions were genuine. "If there's any funny business, you can always shoot us all down," he said good-naturedly. "I'll be toast, but I'm sure you'll both survive, if you're any bit as tenacious as those Kremlings."

"Please," snorted Bowser, "Dragon-Koopas make Kremlings look like pushovers."

"I figured that," grinned Travali. "So you see, I have nothing to gain by trying to trick you – and it'll save your own troops the trouble of getting you back to shore: I see all your airships are busy right now…" As Travali's fleet had neared the beach, they saw that all the surviving flying ships were busy combing the water for survivors from the airships and human ships that had been destroyed. While he was surprised they didn't spare a couple minutes to get their leaders back to land, or even send some sort of smaller transport, he supposed search-and-rescue was a good excuse to simply leave them hanging.

In reality, that was only half of it. Had she really wanted to get back, Bowselta could have conscripted a few Magikoopas to levitate her and Bowser ashore – the surviving members of their personal guards would only need a couple extra hands, who could surely be spared for a few minutes. However, she had been content staying on the conquered human ship, talking to Travali over the human radio while Morton used all the Mushroom Worlder frequencies to coordinate the beginning of the cleanup. Whenever Bowser had invaded the Mushroom Kingdom, Bowselta had been in charge of picking up the pieces, and she was good at it – but Morton was good too, and he didn't mind being the center of attention. When it was just a portion of the Koopa Troop, Bowselta could handle being the one everyone was running to, but not five entire armies. And, so soon after the end of the battle, they would be in a celebratory mood, even as they laboured over the wounded and deceased, and unlike Bowser, she didn't care for the adoration and gratitude that would come with having lead the successful battle.

But she knew she couldn't dodge her responsibilities for long. Having no transportation was a good excuse to remain secluded on the ship for the first half-hour of the aftermath, but she knew it was for the best that Travali was now nullifying that point by offering the service of a functional aircraft big enough to carry the two Dragon-Koopas. Even if Morton still handled the organization, she couldn't be a complete no-show. Her place was back on shore with the troops, in the thick of the action, as much as she wished it were otherwise.

She accepted the offer.

-xxx-

The helicopter flew high over the beach to try and avoid bothering the troops below with excessive wind and noise, and clinging to the outside of the chopper, the Dragon-Koopas could see everything. Fires still burned away in a few of wreckages scattered about the beach, and the ground everywhere was savaged. Craters were blown deep into the land, and the dunes were littered with dark unmoving shapes. The sand along the shoreline was stained a sickly purple colour from Piranha Plant sap, and the water itself was dark with blood as more and more Cheep-Cheep kills were washed ashore from the shallows.

The helicopter touched down on the hillcrest in front of the doomship, dropping off its passengers and then continuing on to the fields out back to park. The party walked down together, but while Travali and his escort went to join Morton in the command center, Bowselta and Bowser headed for the tents with the human medics – someone was dying, and they needed to be there. Emerald met them and quickly dispatched the newly arrived doctors before leading Bowser and Bowselta through the bustling maze, hurriedly explaining the situation in full.

"It happened right near the end of the fighting – a bullet right in the gut. Savaged a few internal organs and none of the treatments are taking. They tried potions, spells, all sorts of Mushrooms - nothing. They think there still might be some fragments in there blocking the magic, or maybe he's just too far gone – it's a nasty wound."

The three Dragon-Koopas strode into the Toad-filled tent. Many jumped at the sudden appearance of Bowselta, still in full battle armour, and Bowser, who had changed out of his broken armour back on the assault ship and only wore his usual set of bracers – although even then, he was still imposing. Emerald hung back, but the others continued on, the crowd of Toads parting before Bowser as he took the lead, only stopping when he was in the front row of onlookers, standing a half-step back from the bed so as not to crowd the doctors. Only Princess Peach was at her father's side, tears streaming down her face as she clutched his hand. He was still warm, but the shadows had spread far beyond his wounds, and even as his daughter begged him to not give up hope, he shook his head wearily.

"No, no, it's no use."

Peach shook her own head. "If they get the fragments out, the magic will work."

"Even if they heal me, I will not survive for long. Look: you can see the blackness has already reached my neck. It's spreading fast – I haven't much life left for it to feed on."

"Don't say that, Father."

"Peach, my darling – my sweet, sweet Peach… I'm old."

"So? You're still strong, you can fight this!"

"That's not what I meant," said King Toadstool. "If not today, it would have happened sooner or later. I'm glad I got to spend my last fighting for this world – fighting alongside my courageous, beautiful daughter."

A fresh wave of tears cascaded down Peach's cheeks as he spoke. "No, no, you're NOT going to die today. You can't, you can't. Just let them operate."

"No," said Toadstool, reaching his other hand over to cup his daughter's cheek. It was clear even from where Bowser and Bowselta stood that even doing that took a lot of effort. "I'm not long for this world – I want to spend every last second with you, not being poked and prodded by doctors who cannot save me."

"But they can! _They can!_" Peach was sobbing now. "P-please, Father – don't give up! You can't give up!"

"I'm sorry, my love," tears now trickled down Toadstool's face. "But this is my time – I can feel it."

"_No, no, no!_"

"My only regret is that I wasn't there fore you more…"

"Don't say that – you've always been nothing but a good father!"

"I was a terrible father," said Toadstool. "Always off sailing around the world – making allies with people who never once helped us. I should have been with you – protecting you from our Koopa friends there." He nodded towards Bowser and Bowselta, but Peach only spared them a passing glance before trying to dispel her father's words.

"But you've been with me for the past few years. And you were there when I was little."

"But I wasn't there when you needed me."

"So- so make up for it now! I still need you, father! Don't leave me… Don't leave me…" Peach flung herself forwards and threw her arms around her father, sobbing into the side of his neck. She felt a terrifying loneliness clawing at her as she begged her father to stay. Toadsworth had died a couple years before of old age, and Toad had died many years ago, when Morton Koopa attacked from the other dimension and destroyed the boat her friend had been driving. After that, Toadette had drifted away, and while she loved her subjects and they loved her,. She never found herself growing overly close to any more of her Toad retainers.

She still had friends, of course, but their numbers had already dropped that day, for Yoshi had been killed in the same onslaught of armour-piercing gunfire that was now stealing her father away too. Mario and Daisy had come through unscathed, but Luigi had been crushed by an assault tank – they got a Life Shroom into him in time to save him from death, but he was in bad shape and was being tended to in another tent. Daisy and Mario were with him, and while she didn't begrudge them for choosing family over their friend, it still meant that she was alone now. Alone save for her father, that is, and she couldn't bear the thought of him leaving her too.

"I'm sorry," said King Toadstool, blinking back the tears. "I'm so, so sorry." He stroked Peach's hair as he spoke. "I love you so much, and I wish I could stay with you forever. I wish I could go back and spend all my days with you." Using all his strength, he took hold of his daughter's arms and directed her back into an upright position so that he could look into her face again. He smiled. "I am just glad that I lived to see this day – the day that peace came to this world. I always knew that the Stars would protect you when I went away – that Bowser wouldn't hurt you, that Mario would save you every time-" He broke off in a fit of coughs, his hands slipping from Peach's arms. She took them up in her own hands and held them tightly, staring intently into his face, almost holding her breath as she willed the coughing to stop, beseeching the Stars to make her father well again. But when he finally lay quiet, his face was pale and clammy, his eyes unfocused, and he was still struggling for breath. "P-Peach…"

"Don't try to speak – just rest," she beseeched him.

He weakly shook his head. "Peach… remember… They… They will always protect you… my… my sweet daughter… My… I… love…"

"Father? _Father!_" But it was no use. The hands in her hands were limp, the face before her empty. Her father was gone. "Father!" she cried. She looked up at the Toad doctors that stood on the other side of the face. "Do something!" But they didn't – they just stood there, their faces ashen. Their king was dead, and there was nothing they could do. She turned back to her father, shaking her head frantically. "No! No no no! Father! _Fatherrrrrr!_"

In a heartbeat, Bowser was on at her side, and she fell into his open arms, letting her father's hands slip from her fingers as she turned her face into the Dragon-Koopa's soft belly scales, sobbing uncontrollably. Bowser wrapped his arms around the princess, mindful as always to not squeeze too hard, only this time, the firmness of his grip wasn't to secure a screaming, struggling kidnappee, but to comfort the bereft girl. He just couldn't let her suffer alone, and as he turned to Bowselta, he prayed to Koopa she would understand he was only doing this as a friend, nothing more. Bowser's face was a mix of apologeticness and apprehensiveness as Bowselta stared him down, her own visage unreadable.

Then, she smiled, and nodded her head slightly. Bowser returned the smile and then turned his focus back to Peach, while Bowselta turned to leave. Emerald had been watching the scene from back of the room, wondering how Bowselta would react to Bowser's chivalry towards Peach in her time of need. She saw the nod and Bowser's obvious relief, and when Bowselta turned away, the smile was still on her lips. It was only after she had gotten past all the Toads that the smile changed to a twisted smirk, the goodwill replaced by a surge of sadistic triumph that flashed in her eyes and darkened her face. But as soon as it had emerged, the malevolence was gone from Bowselta's countenance, as she got a grip on her raging thoughts once more. But Emerald had seen the look, and it gave her pause, and even as she agreed to bring Bowselta to check on Junior, she wondered what was really going on in her friends' mind, and feared that peace wasn't as imminent as King Toadstool had thought.


	30. When Kingdoms Fall

Chapter 29: When Kingdoms Fall

Even as the sun sank below the horizon, things had still not settled down. All the injured had long since been brought into the tents, but the medics were swamped by the sheer number of injuries and were still scrambling to save lives. Anyone with rudimentary knowledge of first aid was conscripted to help the less serious casualties while the professionals toiled over the more grievous injuries. Almost every single Magikoopa was churning out healing potions or rotating through the tents and casting temporary palliative spells on those that could not be attended to immediately, yet still needed some form of easement from their pain. Most of the healing items from the Mushroom, Koopa and Beanbean Kingdoms had been stockpiled in preparation for the bloody battle, but as stores began to deplete, a desperate call was broadcast across the lands for more. The Warp Pipe network was put to use once again as those that had not joined the fighting scrounged for resources that they had missed at first and passed them along.

The arrival of the airships brought some reprieve for the soldiers who still laboured on the beach and the fields out back, as the newly freed human prisoners were instructed to help their comrades retrieve the fallen. Bowselta and Travali, with approval from the other Mushroom Worlder leaders, had decided to get the humans back to Earth as soon as possible. Without the magic of the Mushroom World, there was little that the natives could do to help the injured humans aside from wrapping their wounds and offering other rudimentary treatments, water and food. But that wasn't enough, and the humans' supplies were draining faster than the Mushroom Wordlers', with painkillers and sedatives expected to be used up in a matter of days, at most.

And so, as soon as the injured were in the tents, the focus turned to getting the deceased humans onto the ships. Ideally, they wanted to bring as many of their dead home as possible, although in some cases, the most that could be done was pick out the dogtags from the mutilated fragments in the sand. The darkness of nightfall was a blessing, as was the emergence of the Boos, who took over the more gristly cleanup tasks on the beach without complaint. The humans half expected the beach to be filled with the newly undead as well, but those killed by bullet wounds were unable to linger after death, their souls simply being eaten away by the corrosive alien energy. Needless to say, the Earth humans could not exist in the Mushroom World beyond death either, which was further impetus to get underway as soon as possible. Many of the injured would not survive long, and while the fate of those that died on Earth was still the subject of mystery and debate for many, there was still a prevailing hope that something better than the guaranteed oblivion offered by the Mushroom World awaited them if they could only return home.

They used the three surviving landing craft to take bodies straight from the beach back to the fleet, while the Koopan airships loaded up with those that had already been brought to the fields. Of the human fleet, the _USS Harding_, her six destroyers and her four assault ships would all be returning to Earth, joined by one of the amphibious assault ships from the _Taylor_ group. The other assault ship (the one captured by Bowser and Bowselta) and the two destroyers that had survived the war had all been damaged too severely to be repaired in time to go through the portal without risk of being broken apart. Their weapons would need to be decommissioned and their corridors widened, but Bowselta was still pleased to add the three ships to the Koopan forces. It would not make up for the seven new airships, the Koopa Cruiser, the _Seven_ and the innumerable wooden ships she had lost, but it was better than nothing.

Between the assault ships and the aircraft carrier, the humans were confident they had enough room to transport their dead, although to make more room, they were leaving many of their assault vehicles behind, but not the costly aircraft. Had they known the Koopas had captured four F-16s at the Northern Fortress, they would have asked for them back too, but Bowselta figured she'd keep them secret in case she needed a last-minute bargaining chip, and they stayed in Dark Land.

With the Boos' help, the progress on the beach was going quickly. Within hours, they would start transporting the injured to the ships with the helicopters, and by morning, they could set out for the portal. Bowselta would be glad to see the backs of the Earth humans, but before they left, there was still something she needed to do, and shortly after nightfall, she called a meeting of all the Mushroom Worlder leaders.

They gathered in a circular tent in the western arm of the camp beyond the beach, away from the medical tents, yet still surrounded by activity as soldiers filed in to get food from the stockpiles that had been set up in the area. Some of the activity was also from the Beanbean Kingdom army as they made preparations to head back to their homeland. The Koopas had agreed to loan them a couple of the wooden airships in order to transport their injured; like the Earth humans, they figured their soldiers would be better served back home, where the facilities were better designed to treat the unique Beanish species. With the Beanish general dead and King Peasley still in the Beanbean Kingdom, the leadership of the Beanish army had somehow fallen to Fawful, as his personality overwhelmed the authority that rightful fell to a handful of Bean colonels.

Bowselta wondered if his clout would last once the troop returned to the Beanbean Kingdom; he might get pardoned for his past deeds as thanks for his assistance in the war, but she doubted he would keep any authority over the army. It was a shame – she liked his ambition and his loose morals, and she knew she could have made a good ally out of him. But as things stood, there was no point inviting him to the leader's meeting, so only Peach, Daisy and Luigi were summoned, and Mario was also allowed to attend as a courtesy. The Sarasaland royal council and the seven Mushroom Kings had chosen to abstain from the battle, and could not attend the meeting, but this suited Bowselta – smaller groups got more done anyway

The Koopas were the last to enter the tent. Bowselta was still in battle armour, enjoying the feeling of some sort of a barrier between herself and the masses, but like Bowser, Mario was back in his normal clothes. The girls had discarded their clunky armour plating, helms, guards and gloves, but they still wore the mail coats and the boots, having been too busy to change. Luigi was wearing a green T-shirt and shorts over his heavily bruised and bandaged body, not willing to wear a hospital gown to a formal meeting, but forbidden from wearing anything more restrictive, as the medics weren't done with treating him yet. It was clear he was on the mend, however, and would probably even be able to defend himself if he gulped down a power-up or two for some extra short-term vitality. Bowselta wondered if they had any power-ups still on-hand, not that it would matter much.

She plunked the Mystic Meteor down on the round table in the middle of the room, keeping her hand on it as she surveyed the four humans seated across from her. There were two Dragon-Koopa sized chairs on her side of the table, but she didn't sit down, nor did Bowser.

"Why'd you bring that?" asked Daisy, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I-a-thought it was staying in the ship, in-a-case we need the shield again," said Mario.

"The humans don't know it's here," said Bowselta, who had Kammy carry it over wrapped in a cloth, only giving to Bowselta when she arrived, making sure no one oversaw the transfer. In case anyone visited the control room, they would see a hologram where the Meteor should be, and Morton was there to ward off anyone who might get curious and discover the bluff.

"That doesn't explain why it's here," said Daisy.

Bowselta smiled. It wasn't a friendly sight. "It's here because it's the reason we're here now – its power is what let us win the war. That, and the fact that we were working _together_." Bowselta cast her eyes around the tent; Peach was still disconsolate about her father, but the other three were alert and glaring daggers at the Koopa Queen, while Bowser eyed them just as dangerously. "Wouldn't it be a shame," continued Bowselta, "to break up such an alliance? To go back to the way things were before the invasion – to go back to fighting each other?"

"_We_ never fought each other," snarled Daisy, gesturing around her side of the table. She was always the more assertive half of her and Luigi's partnership, and with Peach still reeling from her loss, the Sarasaland Queen felt an even greater need to take the lead in this "meeting" with her scheming Koopa counterpart. "If you don't want things to go back to the way they were, then _you_ can stop trying to invade us all the time."

"We haven't tried to invade in years," growled Bowser.

"So, keep it up," said Daisy icily.

"Believe me, starting another war with your countries is the _last_ thing Bowser and I want to do," said Bowselta, now placing both hands on the Meteor and leaning forward over the table. "But here's the thing… We have no intention of crawling back to Dark Land either."

Mario and Daisy were on their feet in an instant while Luigi's eyes widened in shock, all three speaking at once. "Is that a fact!" "Oh yes you will-a!" "What are you saying?" Peach on the other hand, wasn't surprised of the new development, and merely closed her eyes in sadness while Bowselta sneered at her friends.

"For two hundred years, the Koopas have been subservient. Stuck in the darkness, while you humans rule the world – the world _your_ ancestors stole from ours," spat Bowselta.

"Not all humans came from Earth – we have as much right to live in this world as you do!" argued Daisy.

"Koopa didn't take our powers, isn't that proof enough?" added Luigi.

"We're not saying you can't live here too," said Bowselta. "What we're saying that the world doesn't _belong_ to you. You only rule this place because a man like Griggs sailed into this world with toxic black magic and deemed himself King over the peaceful Toads and native humans, and declared war on the only creatures whose power came close to his own, slaughtering them before they could stop him. You inherited the world from a monster, and now, finally, that injustice can be undone."

"We-a-always stopped you before, we'll-a-stop you this time!" said Mario.

"Oh yeah?" said Bowser. "Our entire army is _right here_ – and yours may be here too, but we could still overpower you, and then it'd be a cakewalk taking over the rest of the continent. Our ships are all along your coast, and there's hardly anyone defending the Sarasaland border – we'd be a few Warp Pipe jumps away from filling up your land too. Who knows, maybe then we'd continue on and tell Jewelry Land to surrender or else – they're pushovers, they'll do it. Then we just have to tell Peasley that he keeps his little corner of the world and he won't help you either."

"It's not going to get that far!" said Luigi, finally pushing himself onto his feet.

"We'll-a-defeat YOU, _here_," said Mario.

"It's four against two – and you've lost to better odds," said Daisy.

"Ah, but this time, we have the Mystic Meteor," said Bowselta, tapping the rock with her claws. "From what I've been told, Griggs survived being blasted by fire, falling five stories and then being buried in rubble by holding onto the Meteor – imagine what it'll do for _me_."

"We'll just have to blast it out of your hands, I guess!"

"I'll counter you."

"You can't-a-stop ALL of us!" shouted Mario.

"We'll throw everything we have at ya!" cried Luigi.

"Well, three of you will, at least," said Kamek, suddenly materializing off to the side of the tent and causing Luigi, who was nearest, to jump.

"You!" gasped Mario.

"Yes, me," smirked Kamek. "I bought Her Highness enough time to get close enough to collapse Griggs' balcony, and I'm sure I could stop one of _you_ in your tracks long enough for Bowser to get a few good shots in."

"And by 'one of you', he means Mario," snarled Bowser.

"Big surprise there," said Daisy, "but Luigi, Peach and I can handle 'Her Highness' just fine, I'm sure. Meteor or no Meteor."

"That's why I brought backup," grinned Bowselta, tapping the side of her helmet to remind the humans that it had a built-in radio. "Ludwig and Kammy are both waiting outside – I just have to transmit one word, and you'll find that you're the ones who are outnumbered. Three adult Dragon-Koopas, the most skilled Magikoopa in the land, and the brother who lingered beyond the grave just to protect her, versus four humans, one of whom is still recovering from near-fatal injuries. You still want to bet on those odds?"

"You could outnumber us ten to one and we'd still win and you know why?" Daisy puffed herself up to her fullest height. "Evil always loses."

"Yeah, the Stars won't let you do this! Not now, not ever!" said Luigi.

"Oh yeah!" nodded Mario.

Peach just shook her head.

"The Stars have no choice!" crowed Bowselta. "Not this time – and you know why? Because as 'evil' as you think I am, the alternative is far, far worse. Think about it – Bowser and I haven't always lost. We stopped Kamek, we stopped Morton Koopa, we stopped Griggs and Powell! Bowser helped you lot save the world plenty of times while I was gone, didn't he? And why? Because _evil never wins!_" Bowselta's eyes were flashing, barely able to keep her voice level as she continued. "Kidnapping our children was evil. Morton Koopa was evil, Griggs and Powell were evil – much more evil than Bowser or I could ever be, and that's why we won. And the humans are still here – Travali may be a good man, but not all of his troops share this quality, and if fighting breaks out now, while he's on the shore, what's going to happen? Maybe he'll be killed in the crossfire and those men will take the opportunity to try and seize control again: they outgun us, and they'd realize we have no shielding if we're fighting over the Meteor here…"

"Are you _crazy?_" hissed Daisy. "You can't re-ignite the war! Everyone would die! They'd crush us – they'd take over everything!"

"Exactly!" cackled Bowselta. "The Stars will never let that happen! If you defeat us, our army will retaliate, and then the humans decimate the land – they can't afford to let us _not_ win!"

"But if you do kill us then _our_ armies will fight you and the humans will still attack!"

"Are you _sure_?" hissed Bowselta. "As Bowser said before, we'd win that fight, easy, especially once you four are out of the picture, so would your battle-weary people really be so keen about starting something that'd just get them all killed?"

"Well, _you_ are, so why not?" said Daisy. "How can you gamble the fate of the entire world on the- the gutlessness of our armies! You really think they won't try to avenge us? You're delusional!"

"I don't _have_ to gamble – I know they'll make the right choice, because otherwise, the bad guys win."

"_You're_ the-a-bad guys!" said Mario.

"But still the lesser of two evils, wouldn't you say?" said Bowselta, smiling smugly. "Come on, which is worse: us ruling the land as one big, happy, peaceful country, or the Earthlings burning everything down and lording over the remains? You remember what it was like when we took over for those few months all those years ago – was it _really_ that bad? Now think back to how Griggs was ruling the roost, and how horrid those few weeks in shackles had been. Which fate would you choose for the world? Which fate do you think the Stars will choose for you?"

"Surrender," said Peach, finally looking up at Bowselta. "You weren't gambling on what our armies would do – you knew it wouldn't come to that. You knew it wouldn't even come down to killing _us_, didn't you?"

"What are you saying, Peach?" said Daisy, her eyes darting between her friend and the Koopa Queen.

"We can't fight them," said Peach. "If we win, their army attacks, and then the humans attack, and then everyone dies. If we lose, our armies might attack and the humans might retaliate and everyone might die. But if we surrender, no one attacks and no one dies, period."

"…_What?_" Daisy shook her head, trying to figure it out. "So... so let me get this straight – they've come here with the rock and the ghost and the backup, but what, it's all for show because they expect us to just surrender?"

"No," said Bowselta. "It's to _make sure_ you surrender. With our rock and ghost and backup, we can defeat you – unless the Stars intervene, which they won't because to let you win means everybody dies. So, they _have_ to let us beat you, because if we win, there's a _chance_ that everyone won't die, and that's better than nothing."

"And," added Bowser, "our armies won't listen to the Stars if they try and talk them out of avenging me and Bowselta, but your armies _will_ listen."

"So that 'chance' of survival becomes a _guarantee_, because obviously the Stars won't let it all end like this - not – after everything that's happened." Bowselta was clearly enjoying herself.

Mario, Luigi and Daisy, on the other hand, were shaking with rage. Mario was the first to find his voice. "You-a-monsters! You'd-a-sacrifice the entire world-a-just because you couldn't-a-rule it?"

"Weren't you listening, plunger-breath?" growled Bowser. "We have no intention of sacrificing anything."

"Oh yeah?" challenged Luigi. "If you _really_ cared about the world, you wouldn't have tried to pull this! You'd give up and walk away right now!"

"Why would we walk away from certain victory?" said Bowselta. "We can beat you fair and square and take over your armies and the Stars will have no choice but to help us because if they don't, everything is lost."

"But you don't know that our armies will cooperate with you tyrants! You can't be sure the Stars will help you!" said Daisy.

"I _am_ sure," said Bowselta. "I don't want any harm to come to the world, and neither do you. But you're _not_ sure – you won't take that gamble, because you're the 'good guys'. You're not like me-"

"You're not like _us_," corrected Bowser.

"Yeah, we're not like-a-you, and we won't-a-let you do this!" said Mario.

"Mario…" sighed Peach. "We don't have a choice. They're right."

"How can you _say_ that?" gasped Daisy.

"Because it's true," said Peach. "The Stars _won't_ let this world fall to the humans – they've been helping us all along. I saw it, in the stadium during the execution – Bowselta couldn't have made that leap by herself: it was too far to the balcony. The Stars carried her there, I'm sure they knew the blood would bring Koopa back. And then during the counter-invasion and the battle… all our plans, they went so well, all the setbacks were minor… And we all survived. My father… my father was old, and so was Yoshi – maybe it was just their time, but the Stars protected the rest of us. So many people died all around us, yet the bullets missed us – none of the Koopalings were killed either, except for the _one_ child who had Near Immortality…"

Peach looked at her friends before setting her sights back on Bowselta. "The Stars helped _you_, but it's not because you're the lesser of two evils, it's because in saving the world, you were acting selflessly. You threw yourself at Griggs to try and save your family – you did it out of love, and you lead this war because of love. Don't you see? That's what matters. It's _love_. Love, and hate. That's what makes you good or evil, that's what makes the Stars help you or hurt you. We won the war because we are good – and so were you, but if you turn your back on that now, and let the hate return to your heart, you won't win. You'll fall – you'll fall so far and everything you love will fall with you. You say the humans are evil, their weapons toxic, but it's hate that destroys life – it destroyed Griggs, and it will destroy you."

Bowselta snorted. "How sentimental. 'It's all about love and hate', where have I heard that speech before? Oh yeah, it was way back when we saved the kids from Kamek. You said we won because we loved our kids and Kamek lost because he hated me." She turned to Kamek. "Do _you_ agree that's why you lost – did the _hate_ destroy you?"

"No, I'm pretty sure it was a couple blasts of fire from you two that killed me," said Kamek sardonically.

"And Bowser, all those times you somehow lost to Mario when victory seemed assured – was it because hate tripped you up, or because the Stars swooped in and meddled in our affairs, unable to watch as their stupid little plumber got what was coming to him?"

Bowser hesitated, his eyes locked with Peach's, rather than his wife's.

"_Bowser?_" hissed Bowselta.

"No," he said.

"It… wasn't a 'yes or no' question," said Bowselta, raising her eyebrow, her eyes narrowing as they darted back and forth between Bowser and Peach.

"I mean, no, it wasn't hate. I mean, sure, I hated Mario – still do, in fact," he smirked. "But that's not the main reason I was always fighting him. Oh, but neither was Peach!" he hastened to add, catching a sight of his wife's murderous glare. "I mean, I- I'm a bad guy, a final boss, a card-carrying villain, an evil overlord, whatever you want to call it, but hateful? No, no that was never my angle. My father, well now there's hate – no offense Kamek, but when we met the Morton from the other reality? I mean, sheesh. There as no way I'd let myself be like him – he wanted to kill his own kids, he killed his own _wife_." Bowselta's jealousy melted away at the look Bowser sent her as he spoke that last part, before turning back to Peach.

"I'm NOT like him, and neither's Bowselta and if you think we're doing this because we hate you, and the world, and everything, then you're _wrong_. We're not going to lose! We've come too far to let you take it all away again – to force us back down again. I won't let you do it – not to me, not to her, not to our kids, our friends, our _people_."

"So you see, even if your little hate theory was right, it wouldn't matter, because we're not doing this out of hate at all," said Bowselta, although her smirk wavered as she went on, her eyes averted. "We're doing it because we want to be free: for our kids to be free of those stinking, dirty mountains. It's not so much that Dark Land in and of itself is bad, but there's just so much more – and they can't have it, and _that's not fair_." She looked back at the humans. "I love my children and I love Bowser and I want to give them the best life that I can – that's all I've _ever_ wanted. And now, finally, after so many years of planning, fighting, waiting, dreaming, I know how I can do that – and I will not let this opportunity slip away. I will kill every single one of you with my bare hands if I have to, but let me be clear that I don't _want_ to."

"Me neither," said Bowser, his eyes fixed on Peach. He'd be fine with killing Mario, Luigi and Daisy, even if it meant the rest of the takeover might not run as smoothly as it would if they cooperated. But Peach was another matter: she could see it in his eyes – pleading her to accept the situation, to not force Bowselta's hand.

"Besides," continued the Koopa Queen, "this could be a good thing for you too. Last time we took over, we left things pretty much intact, but over the years, I've done a lot of research and put a lot of thought into how _flawed_ the current political landscape is. For example, the Sarasaland Royal Council? That's gotta go."

"What? You can't just toss out our entire government," protested Daisy.

"I thought you hated the council?" said Luigi. "Po Po and the others are always telling you how to do everything, and they're always arguing about how to run each other's kingdom..."

"It doesn't make sense how the Royal Council as a whole decides on how each separate territory goes about its internal affairs," observed Bowselta. "Why should Chai get a say in how Easton goes about farming its plateaus, for example – it's not like Chai depends on those crops: it has its own farms."

"That's just how it's always been done," said Daisy. "It keeps us united, doing everything together…"

"But aside from yourself and Luigi here, what exactly do the four kingdoms share? The cultures are unique, the traditional languages are completely different, most species are endemic to each kingdom…"

"Well, there's the religion-"

"Which is the same as the Mushroom Kingdom," cut in Bowselta. "Star worship – only watered down a little." Daisy scowled, but she held her tongue – Bowselta had a point. "There's no reason for the four kingdoms to be tied at the hip – and there's no reason for you to be the one stuck mediating their disagreements. Traditions don't always have to be upheld – Bowser and I tossed out a few Koopan things."

"Like how you need to be mated to be King or Queen," said Bowser. "You lot have that rule too – don't tell me you don't think it's stupid too."

"I didn't mind being a princess all those years," huffed Daisy.

"Good, so you won't mind being one again, then," said Bowselta.

Daisy rounded on the Koopa Queen. "_What?_"

"Well, the other thing that needs tossing out is the layers upon layers of kingdoms. Like how the Mushroom Kingdom is made up of all those other kingdoms, some of which are no more than an island or two anyway."

"What does that have to do with me not being a queen?"

"It'll make organization much easier if all the former kingdoms – the little ones, Birabuto and Grassland and whatnot – are just called territories, and like I was saying about the dissolution of the Sarasaland Royal Council, each one would run itself. The Council members and the little Mushroom Kings can keep being in charge, but not as 'kings'-"

"And what happens to me and Peach?"

"You'll be our representatives. You and the Koopalings who are interested in that sort of work, that is. You can travel around or choose one place to stay, or a mix of the two; split up, stay together – whatever you want. Ultimately, the territory leaders will be answering to Bowser and I, and so will you, but we can't be everywhere at once and like I was saying about Sarasaland's current set up, it'd be better for someone local to make local decisions."

"So… we'd be like your spokespeople?" Daisy was skeptical.

"Oh, more than that – spokespeople don't make decisions. No, you'll be like Princess Peach. Ruling while her father was away: making decisions, attending public events. All that _fun_ stuff."

"So what we've been doing all along?"

"Minus the squabbling Sarasaland Royal Council."

It sounded too good to be true. _But_, Daisy told herself, _Bowselta's probably doing that to appease the Stars – if she went tyrannical on our asses, the Stars would free us once the humans were gone. Like last time, when they were forced to bring Mario and Luigi back. And that time, she just left things alone – this time… It actually sounds like an improvement._ Daisy hated to admit it, but Bowselta was right – ruling Sarasaland by committee was not a good strategy. And, while she technically had the ultimate say in everything, Po Po and the others had a knack for taking those powers away with red tape and obscure laws and traditions. Now that she was a queen, now that they couldn't keep her a princess any longer, things were starting to change, but having more power also meant less freedom. Luigi wouldn't be allowed to leave and visit Mario, and she wouldn't be able to participate in competitions and go to parties with Peach anymore.

She looked at her friend. With her father gone, Peach would lose much of her freedom as well. Her father had shirked his duties and travelled the world for years, but Daisy knew that Peach would be a dedicated ruler. She'd probably even go so far as to find a husband and have a child, although Daisy knew her friend hadn't found "the one" yet. It was a sad irony that the girl who loved everyone had not found love yet – many had come calling, but none were right. Not even Mario. Peach had wanted to love him, but she never found herself reciprocating his feelings, and eventually, after Bowser and Bowselta had stopped attacking, he started to realize that he too was just going through the motions – feeling things because he thought he should, because the world thought he should.

Part of the reason Daisy and Luigi took so long to get married was because they were waiting for Mario and Peach to go to the next level like them. Daisy didn't want her friend to feel left behind, and Luigi was so used to trailing behind Mario, he was almost afraid to take the biggest step of all before him. And it's not like there was a rush – in fact, the loss of freedom Bowselta was now offering an escape from was another reason Daisy had been happy to stall all those years. That, and the even steeper loss of freedom that would come with having children, and while she _did_ want kids, she wanted to spend as much time with just her and Luigi as she could before she became queen and producing heirs became a downright royal prerogative.

The thought of heirs snapped Daisy out of her musing. "Wait, you said we'd be princesses, nor spokespeople."

Bowselta had been watching Daisy mull over the situation – it looked like the woman was coming around, and she was glad. She knew Peach would go along with the plan – especially after the loss of her father had left her emotionally drained and facing down a much harsher future as the lonely queen of the Mushroom Kingdom. Daisy, however, was as much of a loose cannon as always, and while Bowselta figured she'd give in, it had been far from a sure thing for a while, and the Sarasaland Queen's first real steps towards acceptance came as a relief. After all, despite her bloodthirsty predilection towards the four humans before her, Bowselta truly didn't want to do things the hard way this time. "'Spokespeople' was your word, not mine, and as I said before, you'll be much more than that – you'll be like…" she smiled, and took her hands off the Meteor, holding her arms wide in a welcoming gesture. "…_family_."

The room was silent for a moment. Even Peach was surprised by the revelation. "You mean… we'll join your family?"

"Like, Prince Luigi… Koopa?" asked the green ex-plumber.

"Oh, I am NOT changing my name to Koopa," said Daisy.

"That's not necessary," said Bowselta. "But yes, something like that. You'll become wards of our family – not full adoptions, but it's a way for you to keep your royal status through us. It's from old Koopa traditions – back before even Queen Koopa, when there were smaller tribes and childless leaders could select others to be their heirs. There weren't titles like "king" or "princess" back then, but the clause was written into the official laws when more formal rulerships were established in the aftermath of the first human invasion, just in case. Of course, Bowser and I are far from childless but being in charge of the rules has its advantages – the old rule will work for us, just fine."

Bowselta pulled out a few scrolls of paper from her hammerspace and tossed them across the table, where they rolled open before Peach and Daisy. "I'm assuming you'll want to stay in your respective countries – that's what Sarasaland and the Mushroom 'Kingdom' will be from now on – and so you two will be the Sarasaland Princess and Prince, and Peach gets to remain the Mushroom Princess. As you can see on the papers."

Indeed, everything that Bowselta had explained, from their titles and positions as wards of the Koopa family, to the new political setup of the lands, to the nature of their surrender and assimilation into the Koopa Kingdom, was written on the scrolls.

"So… we sign this, and that's it – you win," observed Daisy.

"Bowser and I have to sign it too. And Mario and Kamek as witnesses," said Bowselta dryly. "I'd like to get Kammy in here as well – Kamek will need to possess someone to sign, and it'd be easier for him it it's another Magikoopa."

"Fine with me," said Peach. "Do you have a pen?"

"Peach! You're not-a-serious!" gasped Mario.

"You heard them – if we don't do this, either we die, or everyone dies. At least this way we can continue to watch over the people."

Luigi nodded. "Everybody lives. And- and I suppose it's not so bad a set up, being part of their kingdom. I- I mean, we won't have to worry about them attacking us anymore."

"We're just lucky this happened after you and I got hitched, Weege – I wouldn't be able to sign away our country if I was still a princess," observed Daisy. "And now I'm going to make myself a princess again – it's ironic," she shook her head. "But yeah, it's gotta be this way." She looked up at Bowser and Bowselta, defiance still shining in her eyes. "For _now_."


	31. Smooth Sailing

Chapter 30: Smooth Sailing

Even as she watched them sign her papers, Bowselta knew the humans were still holding onto hopes that the status quo would return sooner or later. That once the Earth humans were gone, something would happen and they would get their lands back. Maybe they'd keep Bowselta's changes – the dissolution of the Sarasaland Council _was_ a wise move – but they wouldn't keep their Koopan masters, not for long. It wasn't right – once the greater threat was gone, the Koopas would be the villains again, and villains don't win. But Bowselta knew they were wrong.

There was nothing evil about the takeover – no blood was spilt, and even the Stars would agree that a united nation was better than neverending antipathy between the dwellers of Dark Land and their neighbours in the sunlight. Not that _that_ was Bowser and Bowselta's motivation, but their reasons were not bad. As she told the others, she wanted a better life for her children – and for her grandchildren. Crystal would be happier if she could continue to live in the sun, far from the sweltering heat and suffocating darkness of the volcanoes. Bowselta remembered how she had enjoyed the views of their plane ride across the Mushroom Lands, and she wanted to deliver those lands to the girl who would make one of the Koopalings happy and continue the line. If only for one more generation.

Bowselta also wanted to make Bowser happy, and while his encounter with Morton Koopa had cooled his thirst for power, he still wanted the clout and respect that would come from taking over the world. More than that, he wanted to be remembered as more than Morton's idiot son, and she didn't think that was an unreasonable, deplorable desire. Bowselta had seen death – she knew that in her world, there was no heaven, no Underwhere, no reincarnation. The energy of the soul dissipated, returning to the world – to continue in the cycle of life, but never again as the person it used to be. That person would be gone, existing only in memories – was it really so bad that Bowser and Bowselta wanted the memories to be good?

They were no angels, of course. Bowser was often rather self-centered, greedy and far too proud. There was no denying he had run the Koopa Kingdom into the ground with his futile invasions and kidnappings, although Bowser would never admit he was anything but the paragon of kingliness – at least, not in public. And, for all her righteousness, Bowselta knew she herself was far from sinless – she managed to keep a level head, but she was conducted by wrath as much as by her love for her family and her people. She loved the Koopas and hated the humans and their allies; she loved Bowser and hated the ones who did him harm. If the Stars were biased, so was she, but she made no apologies, and she wasn't concerned that her off-colour personality didn't endanger the Koopan takeover this time.

Her plan was too good. Even if Peach was right about love and hate being greater forces than biased perceptions of "good" and "evil", it wouldn't change anything. There was more to Bowselta's plan – more than Peach knew, more than Bowser even knew. Her plan, so perfect, so horribly perfect. Her finest creation, and her most terrible. She had once thought her plan to send the Mario Bros. was her best, but it had just caused her separation from Bowser, and had led to the human invasion. Then she had come to think of it as her biggest folly, but not anymore – it had led to this victory, this new plan. This final plan.

-xxx-

The group remained in the tent for hours, discussing the details of the new political arrangement, and then planning how they would break the news to the world. It was decided that Travali would be told first, as well as Fawful, to ensure the Beanbean and Earth troops were not surprised by the development. The leaders amongst the Mushroom, Koopa and Sarasaland troops were also informed, so that they would be prepared to quell any adverse reactions in the ranks. They used Magikoopas and Toad mages to spread the news – the radios used by the Koopas to talk to each other during the battle were secure, but most long-distance transmissions could be decoded if someone really wanted to, and they couldn't risk news leaking. As in the counter-invasion, Crystal Balls were the only surefire method to keep the information private until midnight, when they would hold a conference broadcasted from the Doomship.

As it turned out, the revelation went smoothly. Peach and Daisy didn't tell their subjects that they had practically been forced to surrender at gunpoint, and instead, repeated the message that unity and peace were good, and that now was the best time to do it, after they had worked together to save their world. Before the meeting, the Mushroom Kings and Royal Council had been informed of the change in command, which had given the Princesses an idea of how the citizens would react, and let them know what to include in their speeches.

The Mushroomians were used to invasions, and as long as the Koopan occupation was presented in a positive light, with no changes to the everyday lives of the people, the Kings accepted it. Peach's performance was a big part of their acquiescence, however – she hid the disparity that had hung off her in the meeting and made it look like she was almost happy that she had a new protector so soon after her father's tragic death. The Sarasalanders had been much more leery, but the thought of ruling their own countries autonomously, rather than having to cooperate and rely on an impulsive, headstrong monarch to settle their tedious squabbles seduced the council members even more effectively than it had turned Daisy's head. All that was left were reassurances that the unique traditions of the endemic populations would not be tampered with or swamped by immigrants from Dark Land, and it was a done deal.

Unsurprisingly, the Beans didn't care about the status of their neighbouring countries as long as they remained untouched themselves. Back in the Beanbean Kingdom, King Peasley wondered if he would have been conscripted into the unification had he been on the beach as well. In the midnight broadcast, Daisy spoke of how the Sarasalandish culture would be upheld, and he knew the Beanbean Kingdom would have been similarly accommodated. He wondered if he would have taken up the offer, but didn't dwell on it for long that night. There were other matters to attend to – ones that did affect his corner of the continent.

For his part, Travali had mixed feelings about the takeover. He knew it only happened because of the human invasion, and he didn't particularly like the idea that people from Earth had caused such a dramatic change in the alien world. But it didn't sound like it was a change for the worse, and it seemed that the people accepted their conquering without protest. No fighting erupted on the beach, and if protests happened elsewhere in the world, he wasn't told about them. Not that there was anything he could do about either way, nor would he even if he had that option – the Earthlings had done enough, and at this point, any further meddling would just make things messier for everyone involved.

Besides, it's not like it affected Earth. Bowselta assured him that the portal between their worlds would be closed for good behind his fleet. She explained that she was going to do it with the powers of the Mystic Meteor – more specifically, by combining the piece that Koopa had cleaved off two hundred years previously. In the past, the energy that had been released was directed into the Earth humans, but this time, Bowselta would use the energy to seal the portal. Travali had heard the story of Koopa shortly after he got to the Mushroom Continent, and was a little concerned about the plan, but the Queen of the Koopas insisted that combining the pieces would not do to her what separating them had done to Queen Koopa. She said the Meteor was meant to be whole – Koopa had to fight against it to separate it, but Bowselta would be aided by the powers of the rock that longed to be complete again.

Travali was no expert on the legends of the world, and Bowser and the others listening to her plan didn't question the logic, so he took her word for it as well. He spent the rest of the night with the Koopas and their new human wards, continuing to help with the plans for the next day, and also learning as much as he could about the other world. He couldn't help but feel a bit sorry that the portal was being closed – the Mushroom World was a fascinating place, and even if their magic wouldn't work for the humans, he thought wistfully of the alliance that would never happen now.

As a sign of courtesy, the natives gave the Earthlings a massive set of encyclopedias and other assorted tomes to make the human's knowledge of the world as complete as possible, and even let the scientists keep the samples and other research they had gathered during their brief stay. In return, the humans shared all the information they could, bolstering the intel Bowselta had gathered on Earth years before during her stay. The planet had developed a lot between the early 1990s and 2003, and comparing the two worlds was fascinating, as was looking at their historical development. Earth was more advanced in some ways, but in others, they were far outpaced, although the simplicity _chosen_ by much of the Mushroom Worlders obscured this at times.

Travali couldn't believe that Griggs, Powell and any other men could have looked down on the people of the world just because they were not human – the Doomship alone had convinced him that they were dealing with intelligent, civilized life before they even sailed through the portal. Only a fool would deny that far more than humans peopled this world – the birds and the fish and even the plants could speak. In the Mushroom World, the hills _literally_ had eyes, and it sent Travali's head spinning with amazement, but all too soon, the sun had risen and the convoy set off for the portal to the far less anthropomorphic Earth.

The _USS Harding_, the four assault ships, six destroyers and three landing craft were joined by three forcefield-bearing airships and a handful of wooden craft, and as they sailed East around the Mushroom Continent, a few more wooden vessels joined them. Even with the new arrivals, the human fleet could easily overwhelm their Koopan escorts, and so Travali travelled on one of the airships with the royal family to help show he had no intention on going back on his word. Crystal, Emerald, Kammy, Kamek, Peach, Daisy and the Mario Bros. joined Travali, Bowser, Bowselta and the Koopalings, and while it made for a crowded bridge, they made sure the lower level, where the important stations were, were clear, so as not to interfere with flight. Many of the travelers also spread out into the hallway beyond the bridge during the uneventful journey, content to chat in the corridors, away from the impressive view offered by the bridge.

Junior was one of them. Physically, he had fully recovered from his ordeal, but he was still quite shaken. He could still feel the pain and the cold and blackness of his temporary death, but he wouldn't let it keep him bedridden – it had never kept his father down, and he wanted to show he was just as strong. And stronger than Bowselta. While he now had a better idea of what she had gone through in her own brush with death, he felt that if he could rise to this occasion, she should have been able to pull herself together enough to help plan the counter-invasion, instead of hiding away. Her wounds had been healed by _Queen Koopa_ after all – she had been spoken to by Koopa, and she woke up surrounded by friends and family. Junior woke up with only Larry keeping vigil – their parents were off planning this trip to the portal at that point. Oh, Larry had immediately fetched them, and they had showered their youngest with concern and affection, but then they left him again. There were more _important_ things to do.

He wondered if they would have left Ludwig so soon. Their precious heir with his precious powers and his precious staff. They probably would have rushed to save him, too. Up on his hill, in the center of the fighting, flaunting his powers, fighting next to their mother. If _Junior _had been up there, he wouldn't have died… It was clear, just by looking at him, that Junior had dark things on his mind, and that it would take more than a "near"-death experience to undo years of rancor aimed at his mother and the brother who she had always loved more than him. But no one was foolish enough to try and talk to him about it or ingratiatingly try to cheer him up. The other Koopalings who wandered into the back let him be – although the fact that they weren't big talkers helped. Roy didn't care about the view and wanted out of the crowd, eventually dozing off leaning against the wall opposite from Junior's seat. Larry had bad experiences on the bridge of an airship and just assumed avoid anything that could possibly trigger an embarrassing flashback or worse – especially not with Crystal there.

While part of her wanted to stay with Roy, and another part even wanted to stay with Larry, who's dedication to watching over Junior in the camps (and, she mistakenly believed, during their journey) had impressed her, the view on the bridge was too good to pass up. The sparkling blue ocean that stretched out forever took her breath away, and she loved looking over at the distant shore of the Mushroom Kingdom, noting the cliffs and the beaches and the clusters of jungle-clad volcanic islands that sometimes reached out towards the convoy. But eventually they passed beyond the reaches of the Mushroom Continent and with nothing to look at but water, she turned her attention to the people around her.

Her mother was talking to Vice-Admiral Travali, laughing and swapping stories, both of them happy to have a reprieve from the unpleasant business of war. Emerald was the sort to make friends easily, and while the native humans hadn't been very responsive to her attempts to start up conversation earlier in the trip, Travali had no such reservations, and she had swiftly grown quite fond of the good-natured human with the grey-streaked hair. Lemmy was off talking with Iggy and Wendy, but Crystal could see his eyes flick in her mother's direction every so often, as if he was afraid she might get a little _too_ fond.

It was baseless, of course – Travali would be gone soon, and he didn't compare to the young Dragon-Koopa anyway. She knew her mother liked his shorter hair, once more cut into spikes, and soon to grow back to their full height, although she liked it that way too – just as she had liked his wonky horn, but liked his new, proper pair just as much. Basically, Emerald just liked Lemmy, full stop. Crystal was still amazed at how fast the Koopaling had gone from being a terrified child to a willing accomplice in her mother's neverending quest for perversion, but then again, she had seem Emerald turn the heads of stronger men in less time – and those were cross-species encounters. Lemmy never stood a chance.

She wished she would be so fortunate. She caught Iggy looking her way a couple times, but she had no interest in him. She knew Larry liked her too, and she supposed he wouldn't be so bad a choice, but she was still drawn to Roy, and he didn't like her at all. She hoped that would change – she still had a few years to go before she could legally choose a mate anyway, and while she had a feeling Lemmy and her mother wouldn't wait for their fun to be law-abiding, she supposed she could. A lot could happen in a few years – probably not as much as what had happened in the past few weeks, but still. _Times change, people change – sometimes_, she thought, watching as Lemmy finally gave up his covert vigilance and joined Emerald and Travali – _sometimes for the better._

Crystal wasn't the only one silently watching the group – Daisy, Mario and Luigi stood apart from the Koopas. The Sarasaland Princess was eyeing her new "family" mistrustfully, although she managed to keep the resentment from showing on her face. Luigi simply didn't want to talk to imposing creatures, nor did Mario, who instead spent his time watching Peach like a hawk, lest Bowselta or one of the others try to hurt her. His fears were misplaced, however, for Bowser and his children bore the Mushroom Princess no ill will, and Bowselta simply ignored her and the sulking humans against the wall. Instead, she focused on her kids, with an occasional word with Kammy, Bowser or Emerald, and even spared Travali a few minutes here and there.

For her part, Peach also making a point to be nice to the Koopalings and their friends. She wasn't as outgoing as she would at a Mushroom Kingdom party, but she didn't turn Koopalings away when they made their own attempts at niceties, and politely smiled, nodded, answered questions and even laughed with the youngsters. It had been years since she had spoken to most of them, and she marveled at how much they had grown up since the days when she saw them on a regular basis when Bowser kidnapped her. Even back then, she had always been nice to the kids – she didn't blame them for their father's actions, and she knew it would be unfair to hold their mother's double-crossing against them now.

In fact, she didn't even hold it against the Koopa King when he finally wandered over to her, despite Mario's murderous glares, and launched into how great being part of the Koopa Kingdom would be. At first, the boasting and promising rolled right off her, as his gloating and posturing had all those years ago, but she wasn't impervious to the fact that he was happy – blissfully, deliriously happy, and he really did want her to be happy too.

Bowser had been like this the first time he and Bowselta took over the Mushroom World, and just like then, Peach found herself coming around before too long. She still wasn't complacent about her kingdom being conquered, but she did acknowledge that it wasn't nearly as bad it could have been, and in a way, not having to become queen and replace her father _did_ help dull some of the pain of his passing. She hadn't forgotten that Bowser was the one who comforted her when it happened, and while he always denied it when she tried reasoning with him in the old days, she knew he wasn't a bad person at heart. Ruling the world was never a goal she approved of, but she had always felt sorry for Bowser as he suffered for his dream for all those years, never reaching it, only getting teasing tastes of victory now and then.

Peach still hadn't given up hope that there was a way to free her kingdom from the Koopas, but she accepted that, for now, Bowser had won. And she was happy for him.

-xxx-

As the ships took their positions just short of the site of the portal, and with the Mystic Meteor in her arms, Bowselta led the bridge party outside onto the deck, where a specially made floating platform sat waiting. It had been built the night before by a group of handpicked Koopas, designed specifically to brave the portal. The platform was large enough for multiple Dragon-Koopas to ride, although it could be controlled by a single individual through the use of a simple dashboard atop a pedestal off to one side, yet still far from the edge. The platform was ringed by shield emitters scavenged from a damaged airship (not one of the ones that had come to the portal), which would form a protective bubble around the platform and prevent it from being sucked down into the portal like the _Mark __II_, so many years before.

After obliging Travali's desire for a closer look at the emitters, the Mushroom Worlders then bid the Vice-Admiral farewell.

"Thank you once again for doing this," said Travali. "When we set out, I know many of the soldiers didn't expect to go home – maybe if they hadn't been so resigned, we could have avoided so much bloodshed. It's cold comfort to you, I'm sure, but I hope that they've at least learned from the experience and won't be so quick to forsake their home and start a war next time." Travali smiled. "We have much to learn – in another life, I'd like to think our worlds could have been great allies. I know _I_ wish I could come back someday as part of a diplomatic mission, rather than a military one. But as they say, you can't always get what you want…

"Still, I know the information you gave us will be invaluable to our scientists – we might not be able to make something as remarkable as that floating platform in my time, but who knows, maybe someday. And I hope the info and the ships we left here will be helpful for you somehow too – same with those four Falcons you captured up North," Travali's eyes shone mischievously at Bowselta's attempt to hide her surprise. "Some of the prisoners you dropped off mentioned them, although I'm not surprised you didn't tell me yourself – they _are_ nice pieces of technology." He then shook his head, his face growing somber. "And we do owe you, I suppose – Griggs and Powell did a lot of damage and killed a lot of innocent, good people, and I truly am sorry for it. I know a couple planes won't make up for it, but…"

"I understand," said Bowselta, sparing the Vide-Admiral from having to cast around for the appropriate words. "It's the thought that counts… But no matter, what's done is done – we'll rebuild and now that the countries are all united, our world will be much stronger than it was before you came."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Travali, and then signaled the end of the formalities by clapping his hands together eagerly. "Now, I must be getting back to my ship – they can't finish battening down the hatches until I'm on board."

"I can fly you over," said Kammy, stepping forward and calling up her broomstick.

Travali grinned. "Are we flying on that?"

"Yes," said Kammy, putting a leg over the broom and scooching forward as far as she could go. "But it's a good thing you're skinny – there's just barely enough room: hope on," she indicated the stretch of bamboo behind her.

Travali eagerly took his seat, and while his arms and legs soon ached from holding on for dear life, he thoroughly enjoyed the ride. All too soon, they were flying up to the command tower of the _Harding_ and Travali struggled to suppress the kiddish grin on his face. Riding up on a witch's broomstick was bad enough, and he figured he should keep at least some sort of dignified air when he boarded his ship. Kammy dropped him off at the last open door: the rest of the ship was completely boarded up with reinforced steel plating, making it as airtight as a submarine. Travali thanked the Magikoopa, and as he watched her fly away, the Vice-Admiral sighed – he was going to miss the wonders of the Mushroom World.

-x-

After Kammy left with Travali, Bowselta turned to her companions, shifting the weight of the Meteor in her arms. "It won't take them very long to get to the carrier and I doubt it'll take the humans much time to seal up the door behind Travali. Some of the smaller ships are going to go through before the carrier anyway and will be in position soon, so I'm going to start flying over now and-"

"You mean 'we'," said Bowser.

Bowselta shook her head. "No, it's too risky."

"We'll be fine," said Bowser, waving his hand dismissively. "If we get sucked through, we can just reopen the portal with the rock and come back – we can't close it forever and _then_ go through."

"You never know," said Bowselta. "And what if we go through but drop the Meteor – the water is very deep on the other side, or what if we drop it on this side and go through-"

"You'll still have the charm."

"I'm taking it off to combine them – I could drop it too."

"You'd never drop your charm," intoned Bowser. "Besides, we're going to be safe on the platform anyway, so it won't even come to that."

Bowselta was grasping at straws now. "It would be irresponsible if we both go – especially so soon after the unification of the lands: we need to ensure one of us will come through."

"Sheesh, you're such a pessimist," said Bowser. "If we get sucked through, Ludwig will hold down the fort until we get back," he clasped his hand on his grown son's shoulder. The Koopaling managed a sheepish smile in return.

"And if we can't get back?" Bowselta looked at her husband pleadingly, wishing Mario & Co. weren't there to hear her next words. "Bowser, please – I know that ruling the world means so much to you. I'm sure you're right and this'll work, but I'll still feel better knowing that you'll be safe – that you'll get to rule the world and live your dream."

Bowser shook his head. "It wouldn't feel right ruling without you: you've given me everything, and now all I want is to share it with you. If my choices are living in exile on Earth with you or ruling the Mushroom World without you, I'll choose Earth." Bowser walked up to Bowselta, lowering his voice to try and stop Mario & Co. from overhearing too much. "This world is nothing without you – and I should know. I spent three years trying to fill the void you left when you were trapped on Earth last time, but even if I had managed to conquer the world then, I know it wouldn't have been enough. It will _never_ be enough, which is why I'm going with you. I won't lose you again!"

The two Dragon-Koopas stared each other down, neither willing to give in, but Bowser's stubbornness seemed to rule the day when Bowselta finally broke eye contact and looked out over the ocean, towards the site of the portal, speaking loud enough for the group behind her husband to hear. "As always, there's no stopping you, Bowser."

The Koopa King grinned. "Awesome! So let's get going!" With that he stepped around Bowselta and hopped up onto the platform before she could changer her mind.

Bowselta watched him jump up, but didn't follow immediately. Looking back at the crowd, she caught Emerald's eye, but quickly looked away from the disapproving stare and hurriedly gave some last minute instructions. "Recombining the Meteor will likely cause a big energy wave, so once the humans are through, get the wooden airships and all airborne troops out of here. These ships should be able to handle the feedback."

"Not that we'd leave you anyway, Your Insularness," said Kammy, returning from dropping off Travali. "And I see His Concomitantness managed to talk you into letting him go too."

"You bet I did!" smirked Bowser. Kammy suppressed a frown – he was too cheerful. He didn't know what he was in for.

"Speaking of which, we should be going now – we've delayed too long already," said Bowselta, hopping up onto the platform. Bowser immediately lay claim to the controls, but she didn't mind, and instead looked down at the group, her eyes flicking through the crowd. "I'm sure everything will go as planned, and I'm sure the ships will be fine, but still… Take care." She swallowed hard and looked away. "Goodbye."

"See you soon!" called Bowser as he took off. Rather than watching the Dragon-Koopas go, the group turned and hurried back to the bridge, and like Bowselta, the Koopalings, the Lakipas and Kammy seemed a bit strained. Only Mario and Kamek remained impassive, while Daisy, Peach and Luigi shared puzzled looks, having all picked up on the morose vibe being given off by the corporeal Koopas. Peach had actually been getting a sense that something wasn't right with the Koopas for a while – as the ships neared the portal, the mood had gradually turned as somber as the darkening clouds outside. Bowser was the only one who stayed resolutely positive, and Peach had figured it was just a case of him being overconfident when everyone else was concerned about Bowselta having to face the portal and the risks that entailed. But now, Peach wasn't so sure. She had a feeling there was something else going on, and like her fellow humans, she had a feeling that Bowser had been left out of the loop as well.


	32. Paying the Price

Chapter 31: Paying the Price

As the platform neared the location of the portal, Bowser looked over at his wife. She was standing before him, so all he saw was her blue hair blowing in the breeze, and her black-stained shell. "I know you hate the portal, but don't worry – we won't get sucked through."

"I know," said Bowselta.

"Good," said Bowser, but then he frowned. "Then why are you so worried? Why didn't you want me to come?"

"I'm not worried – I know the plan will work," she let out a short laugh, although if Bowser hadn't known better, it almost came off like a sob. "It's the perfect plan – even the Stars should want it to work."

"Well yeah, of course they would – they want the humans gone too. Like Peach said, they've been helping us out," Bowser grinned. "All those lucky breaks helping us out along the way – no wonder Mario always beat me. I always knew that in a _fair_ fight, he'd lose."

Bowselta nodded. "I never stopped believing that."

Behind her, Bowser puffed up with pride. "Yeah, I _am_ pretty great – but you know, you didn't answer my question." Bowselta could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head as he spoke. "Why didn't you want me to come?"

Bowselta sighed, turning to face him, not bothering to mask her sorrow this time, but before she could say anything, the Meteor in her arms and the blue Paratroopa shell charm that hung above it began to glow, and the question was put out of both their minds.

-x-

Watching from the safety of the airships, the Koopalings and their companions gasped as a column of swirling water suddenly shot up from the surface of the ocean and crashed against the platform's shielding, green sparks now joining the glimmer of blue that had appeared moments before.

-x-

Even with the shield, the platform lurched, but the Dragon-Koopas kept their footing. Keeping the platform steady, Bowser looked down over the edge of the platform. "Why aren't the ships coming forward?"

"The portal's not ready yet," said Bowselta.

-x-

Travali and the other humans on the bridges of the ships watched in awe through the few exposed windows of thick, bulletproof glass. When the portal opened on earth, there hadn't been a waterspout, although Travali supposed that was because the portal hadn't been opened with a key that time. He thought it was interesting how the portal almost seemed to reach out for the Mystic Meteor, as if it wanted to suck it away. But he supposed he would never know why, and merely watched as the water around the spout began to spin as well. _That looks familiar_, he thought with a grim smile, _won't be long now._

-x-

Travali was right, for the sea around the waterspout was soon swirling almost as rapidly as the torrent itself, and even though they couldn't see directly below them Bowser and Bowselta could catch glimpses of the edge of the forming maelstrom as the ocean sunk away beneath them. The waterspout periodically fluctuated, as if trying to dislodge the platform from the sky, but still they held, and the longer the portal was forced open, the more hungry it became. The ocean around the swirling vortex was swelling, and even the clouds above were beginning to twist, and while Bowser wasn't worried, he was glad to see that the human ships were starting to come forward.

-x-

The first of the landing crafts crested the maelstrom, its bow slicing out of the water and into open air for a brief moment, before gravity brought it back down. The boat's middle sank into the whirlpool, the water crashing over the airtight bulkheads, and its stern was lifted above the waves, exposing its spinning propeller. But that wasn't a problem and the weight of the boat pulled it down into the vortex. It sped up as it sailed down the spinning waters, aimed directly for the base of the waterspout, finally disappearing in a blaze of brilliant white light that erupted up from the deep to meet the boat.

A second landing craft soon followed and then the final one. Then the first of the destroyers approached, this time coming in at an angle. While the ships were reinforced, minimizing the amount of the bow and stern that was suspended from the water was still a good idea. Soon after its bow breached the crest of the maelstrom, the destroyer slipped completely into the vortex and rode the spiraling waters, slowly increasing the angle of its curving path until, with a final twist of the rudder, its blow plunged into the flashing portal.

As more and more ships followed it through, the whirlpool continued to deepen and the edge continued to rise. It seemed to have reached its maximum width, and so the vortex within was growing ever steeper, but one by one, the destroyers and amphibious assault ships braved it. Soon the _Harding_ was climbing the swell of waters, and the incline was so great, it was almost like going up a rollercoaster. The platform was directly in front of the ship as it sailed skyward, and Travali did not envy the Dragon-Koopas aboard as he watched the water buffet the sparkling green shield, although he knew the ride he was in for was probably just as harrowing. The supercarrier was too long to be able to spiral down the vortex like the assault ships and the destroyers – they would have to take it directly head-on like the little landing craft.

The aircraft carrier had been designed to do this just fine, but it was still a sickening feeling as the ship burst into the open air. He watched as the bow went higher and higher, while the edge of the water fast approached the command tower, but the ship fell long before that happened. The world spun around them and Travali and his crew grabbed onto the railings and walls for support as the front half of the ship crashed back into the vortex. Water flooded across the bare flight deck, but the supercarrier bobbed back up in no time, now careening forward. It felt almost like falling, the vortex was so steep, and as the _Harding_ was enveloped in light and began to shake uncontrollably, it felt like the world really did give way beneath it as the humans were sucked away.

The last two destroyers didn't bother trying to spiral down the vortex. It was far steeper than the whirlpool had been coming through from Earth, and the humans were worried if they came at it at any sort of angle, their vessels would roll, and they had doubts that they would survive such a calamity. They knew their ships were reinforced enough to stand being half out of the water, and while they had been advised to avoid testing that, they had no choice and one by one, they followed the _Harding_ down into the brilliant white abyss.

-x-

"That was the last of them," reported Morton from the bridge of the airship. "Mom's gonna start closing it now."

"Not a moment too soon," said Iggy, watching as the sky began filling with flashes of its own as lightning began jumping between the clouds.

"Was the portal this bad before?" Wendy asked Kammy.

Kammy shook her head, thinking back to when they had sent the Mario Bros. through. "No – there was no lightning, and the vortex wasn't nearly that deep."

"It gets worse the longer it's open," mused Kamek. "And I'm sure it's the Meteor too – it wants it, and the longer it has to wait, the harder it will try for it."

"You talk as if the portal's alive," snorted Junior, having wandered onto the bridge for a better view of the proceedings outside.

"When all you are is energy, you start to look at the world differently," said Kamek dryly. "No, it's not alive. It's not like you, it's not like me. It's pure energy, a rip in the fabric of the universe, erupting and engulfing all at the same time. I don't understand it, I can't explain it, but I _can_ feel it – I sensed the ships come through and I sensed them going back, but now, there is only one thing I can feel… Hunger."

-x-

"That was the last of them, right?" said Bowser.

"Yes, all fourteen ships have gone through," said Bowselta, backing away from the edge and into the center of the platform.

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" Bowser frowned, catching sight of his wife's morose face. "They're gone – we can close it now!"

"I know," she said, her hand trembling slightly as she reached up and pulled her charm up and over her head.

"Bowselta," said Bowser tentatively, watching his wife stare at the charm in her hand. "_What's wrong?_ We've won, we're together, you have the perfect plan, the Earth humans and their evil magic are gone forever, our kids are alive. Everything's coming up Koopa – you should be happy. But you're not, you're sad. Please, Bowselta, tell me why. Why didn't you want me to come here with you?"

Bowselta looked up at Bowser, turning to face him, the Meteor in one hand, the charm in the other. "Because you love me," she said, her voice breaking. "I… I didn't want you to have to watch."

"Watch? Watch what?" Bowser was starting to feel a bit panicky. "You seal the portal – why wouldn't you want me to watch that? That's a good thing, right?"

Bowselta shook her head in despair. "I'm sorry."

"Wait, stop!" Bowser flicked on the autopilot to keep the platform steady and made to sidestep the control pedestal, but he didn't stand a chance of making it to Bowselta in time. The words were barely out of his lips before she had smashed the two pieces of the Mystic Meteor together. Immediately they seemed to erupt with a brilliant bluish white light as tendrils of energy cascaded in all directions, vaporizing the leather strap and the Paratroopa decorations of the charm, and nearly blinding the two Dragon-Koopas. Before Bowser could recover and clear the distance between him and his wife, the platform lurched beneath him.

-x-

The portal's response to Bowselta's actions was immediate. Light as bright as the flashing Meteor burst from the core of the vortex, streaming up the waterspout as it pulsated and grew, completely engulfing the platform, which was now just a ball of shimmering green sparks around a shining blue core. More spurts of water were being generated by the maelstrom, reaching up towards the Meteor but always dying before they got to close, dropping back down into the shining light below. They were mirrored by funnel clouds above, swirling down from the churning black clouds as bolts of lightning seared through the air and struck the whirpool that now reached up past the portal clear to the ceiling. Even from their position a bit removed from the portal, the airships were being buffeted by violent wind currents so strong and fast it sounded like the world itself was howling in their ears.

-x-

Bowser was barely able to grab hold of the control pedestal to keep himself upright as the platform was surrounded with churning water. The shield held against the force of the waterspout and the vessel remained airborne in its protective green bubble, but warnings were blaring on the dashboard – something was draining the shield much more quickly than they had anticipated, and it would not last forever. Bowser wondered if Bowselta had worried something like that would happen, but as he looked back up at her and the glowing rocks in her hands, he remembered that that hadn't been her answer.

What didn't she want him to watch?

The light was blinding and the platform was still shuddering, but Bowser pushed himself away from the pedestal, slowly approaching his wife, one arm raised to block out some of the brightness. Squinting, he could see that the Meteor was still in two pieces, as Bowselta shuddered with the effort of trying to force the smaller piece into a shallow hollow of the rock.

"The pieces don't match! Look for a bigger hollow!" he offered, trying to be helpful and hasten the process.

Bowselta shook her head, her own eyes clamped shut. "They're not meant to fit together!" Like Bowser, she had to should to be heard against the noise of the rushing water and sparking shield. "Koopa used magic to pull the piece off – she didn't actually scoop out a perfectly round piece of the rock. She just scraped out a bit from this hollow – the Meteor smoothed itself out afterwards, and the piece formed itself into a ball!"

"Koopa told you that?"

"Yes! She knew I would need to put the pieces back together in order to protect the world!"

"So this was _her_ plan?" gasped Bowser, nearly losing his footing as the platform bucked. As if she was anchored in place by the ball of energy in her hands, Bowselta acted like she didn't feel the lurching platform at all as she shook her head.

"She didn't tell me I'd have to do it – she just explained what she did, but I'm sure she knew that I would need that info when I figured it out for myself!" Bowselta smiled bitterly, her head bowed and her body shuddering with effort as she squeezed the two rocks together. "This was _my_ plan – but there was no other way!" She tossed her head back, her glowing blue eyes sliding open as she cried out in sorrow and pain. "Remember that! This was the only way!"

-x-

As lightning began to strike at the airships, Ludwig ordered them to back up. "Make sure zee vooden vones keep retreating like Muzzer said!" he barked at Morton, who was manning the ship's comm. "If zey get knocked out and hit zee vater, I'm sure everyone vill be pulled under – if not vorse. Zere could very vell be a rip tide leading straight back too zee portal!"

"Given the unnatural swelling of the ocean around the vortex, my guess is there is most _definitely_ a rip tide," agreed Iggy.

"Why's it taking so long?" asked Peach. "If Kamek's right, it's just going to keep getting worse!" Already, tornadoes were beginning to hit the water, and the waterspout was now wreathed in black clouds from above, although the brilliant light from the Meteor still filtered through from the middle of the torrent. The area was lit by lightning almost as much as it was lit from the yawning whirlpool below, and the secondary licks of water were constantly reaching higher and higher towards the platform.

"Merging the Meteor's not simple – it takes a lot of energy," explained Emerald. "It's not as complicated as splitting it would have been, hence Ludwig's still got the staff…" she jutted her jaw at the eldest Koopaling for emphasis, even though he the staff was concealed inside his hammerspace so the visual didn't add anything to her story. "…but it still takes time." She clenched her jaw. "And _a lot_ of energy."

Peach furrowed her brow, considering Emerald's words and trying to read the hardened look on her normally jovial face as she gazed past Peach at the scene outside, her daughter latched onto her arm, close to tears. Then suddenly, she figured it out.

-x-

Bowser was taken aback by the blue light emitting from within his wife's pupils – even the whites of her eyes seemed to be glowing a pale blue, making her crimson irises look almost black by comparison. But that wasn't the only thing amiss as her eyes rolled back, barely staying clear of the eyelids. The anguish in her voice had been clear, and Bowser realized that the shuddering of her limbs wasn't just from effort. "You're in pain!" he gasped, taking another step towards her, wincing as a scorching hot tendril of energy grazed his arm. "Bowselta, stop! We'll find another way!"

"This is the only way!" she repeated, tears welling up in her eyes. "For everything – the plan… It's too perfect…"

"No! This is a BAD plan!" growled Bowser, gritting his teeth and charging forwards, only to be blocked a couple steps away by a sudden wave of energy. It was then, as the light threw Bowselta into sharp relief, Bowser realized with a sickening jolt that the black mark on her chest had gotten bigger, and even as he watched it, it seemed to be spreading, the shadows bleeding across Bowselta's skin like ink on paper. Recombining the Mystic Meteor wasn't hurting her – it was _killing_ her.

-x-

"Ludwig!" gasped Peach, trying to keep her voice down as she ran up beside the eldest Koopaling. "Bowselta's in trouble – she said that combining the Meteor wouldn't take as much energy as separating it did, but I don't think that's true – and even if it is, with all those black marks, I don't think she'd have enough to spare: she's going to kill herself!"

"_You sink I don't know zat already?_" hissed the Dragon-Koopa, sparing Peach only a fleeting glance before turning back to the flashing, swirling portal. "Vee _all_ knew zat's vat she vas planning. Many times, vee tried to talk her out of it, but she vouldn't listen – she said it vas zee only vay." Ludwig closed his eyes wearily. "Zee only vone who didn't know… vas Fazzer."

-x-

"The Mark – it's spreading! You have to stop this, now!"

"I can't – it's the only way."

"STOP SAYING THAT!"

"But it's true!" With some effort, Bowselta pulled her head forward, looking straight at Bowser across the Meteor. "The portal needs to close – and I need to be the one who does it!"

"No you don't! Give the rocks to me – I'll do it: I have enough energy."

"No one person has enough, not even you!" Bowselta closed her eyes again. "Besides, it _has_ to be – if I hadn't been planning to do this, we wouldn't have beat them."

-x-

"She knew he vould have tried to stop her – he'd have knocked her out and taken her place if he had to. But he couldn't – zee plan hinged on _her_ making zee sacrifice."

Peach nodded. "The Star Spirits would never have let her win if she planned to keep it for herself. But if she planned on giving her life, with the conquered kingdoms being her parting gift to Bowser… That's pure love."

-x-

"Peach was right," said Bowselta. "It's love and hate – it's always been love and hate. It makes you good or evil, it determines who wins or loses. The Stars decide who's good or bad, but they do it based on who you are – not what you are. You and I, we've always been the bad guys – we were evil and proud of it, weren't we?"

"Not _too_ evil," said Bowser.

"But evil enough – a dark enough grey for them to beat us down unless someone darker came along. But now that the humans are gone, we're the darkest shade again. They'd find a way to stop us – they _would have_ found a way to stop us. But they can't stop us – because I didn't do any of this out of hate." She closed her eyes again; the black mark was beginning to creep up her neck now, sliding along a tendon like a wick. "I'm giving my life to save the world – I didn't want it for me, I wanted it for you, so you would be happy when I'm gone. I even made sure you'd have Peach around to keep you company." _Albeit as a ward, not a replacement girlfriend_, she added to herself in one last moment of slyness, but as a fresh wave of pain coursed through her body, all inclement thoughts were purged from her mind and she cried out.

"Bowselta!" gasped Bowser

"I had the purest of intentions!" she crowed through the agony. "They couldn't deny me this one last wish!"

-x-

"It's a beautiful plan – so eloquent, yet so cruel. And Fazzer didn't see it coming – zee rest of us knew she vas lying ven she said she could survive merging zee Meteor, but Fazzer had no choice but to believe her. Losing her vould be… unsinkable."

"But how could she keep that from him?" Even if he would try to stop her, Peach couldn't understand how Bowselta could lie like that.

"She loves him too much. It's not zee first time she's kept bad news to herself. She vanted to protect him – she vanted zeir last few hours togezzer to be happy, not sad. I know Emerald didn't approve of it eizzer… but in a vay, I can understand vy she did it."

-x-

"Please, you can't do this!" begged Bowser. "I don't want the world – I want you! I won't let you sacrifice yourself! I don't care what the Stars do to me! I don't care what the damn Meteor does to me! I'd rather die here and now than live without you!"

"It's too late," said Bowselta, tears streaming down her face and evaporating as they fell towards the burning blue Meteor. "You can't stop it! If we try to leave now, the portal will rip us apart – and you can't take my place: it's linked to my energy – _fused_ to my energy! I'm sorry Bowser, if there was any other way, I would have taken it, but I have to do this! For the world, for the kids, for you, for everything! I am so, so sorry – I didn't want to do this to you."

"I'M NOT LOSING YOU!" bellowed Bowser, pushing through the energy. There was so much raw power being released, it burned white hot against his scales, but he didn't care – he had to get to Bowselta. Black marks were spreading all over her now and it was clear she was fighting a lot of pain – no wonder she hadn't wanted him to watch. But he had to be here – even before he knew what she was planning, he sensed there was something wrong. Just as he had known the severity of her black leg scar long before she told him. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he wasn't a fool – he knew his wife well, and he knew she needed him.

"Bowser please! Get back – there's nothing you can do!"

"Oh yeah?" challenged Bowser, reaching forward through the energy and grabbing Bowselta's wrists. "You said no one person has enough energy! You said it's linked to your energy!" Despite the pain and the severity of the situation, he grinned coyly at her. "We might not have had a chance to, ah, _strengthen our bonds_ in quite some time, but we're still linked." He thought back to the time he almost died and sensed her in New York, sleeping on her bed of gold; he remembered the cold that filled him when Officer Griggs shot her. And he remembered happier times. All the times they were together – the kiss in the doomship, the stolen afternoons in the ruined city, that first night, so many years ago, when he promised her three ships and she promised him everything. He would hold her to that promise – she was his everything, and she wasn't going to take it away. "You're a part of me, and I'm a part of you, and I'm just brimming with power! If this rock needs more juice, then here it is!"

Before Bowselta could protest, Bowser slid his hands over hers, planting the base of his palms against the burning metal beside her hands and worming his fingers between hers. Careful not to compress her hands as well, Bowser started pushing against the metallic rock, and instantly, he felt a jolt as the Meteor accepted his energy too.

-x-

All at once, the eight Koopalings sensed a chance and winced in unison. Peach stared up at Ludwig as he raised a hand to his forehead, his eyes wide. "What is it, what's wrong?"

"I don't-" he looked back at the other Koopalings, many of them also had a hand to their head or were slightly bent over from the brief flash of discomfort. They were looked back at him, concern etched in their faces, and the other occupants of the bridge tuned to him as well.

"Do you think she's…" began Lemmy.

"No," said Ludwig. "Zee portal's not closed. Somezing else has happened…" he looked out the window, wracking his brain for an answer. "Somesing's wrong."

"It's Daddy!" Wendy suddenly gasped, figuring out what Bowser must have done.

"Of course – with the Mark of the Dead affecting her, Mom wouldn't have had enough energy to close the portal by herself!" deduced Morton.

"So King Dad's helping her," gasped Larry.

Beside him, Junior stared forlornly into the air, his voice a hoarse whisper. "He's in trouble too."

-x-

Bowser was still standing amidst a sea of fire, but the heat from the raw energy was nothing compared to the searing pain within his body itself. It was worse than anything Mario had ever done to him, and it took a moment to get a grip and open his eyes. It was hard to see – everything looked a bit whited out, but soon he could focus on Bowselta staring back at him.

"It worked!" he crowed.

"But what if you die too!" cried Bowselta.

"Then we die together!" growled Bowser. The platform suddenly shifted, and while the Meteor was keeping both Dragon-Koopas rooted to the spot, Bowser knew they were in trouble as freezing water suddenly doused his feet. The shield was collapsing, and as Bowser leaned forward and rested his forehead against Bowselta's, he knew they only had moments left, and she did too.

"But we're not going to die!" he challenged. "Not after everything we've been through!"

The platform was starting to shake now, and more and more water was exploding through the flickering shield, Bowser and Bowselta both had their eyes closed against the chaos, and Bowser was screaming at the top of his lungs. "THIS IS OUR DAY!" He opened his eyes a slit, staring at Bowselta as they both pushed at the rocks with every last ounce of strength in their shuddering bodies. "THIS IS OUR VICTORY!" He could feel the energy flowing from his fingertips into the rock – he willed it to go faster, to outpace the life that was being sucked from Bowselta. "THIS IS OUR _WORLD_!" Bowser laughed aloud. "AND WE'RE NOT LEAVING IT YET!"

And then suddenly, the charm seemed to turn to liquid beneath their hands, melting into the Mystic Meteor and flooding the Koopas with a surge of warmth as the pain was replaced with an all-encompassing wave of pure white oblivion.


	33. The Darkness and the Light

Chapter 32 – The Darkness and the Light

It happened too quickly. One second, the round ball that was the shielded platform was rapidly being crumpled by the waters, winds and lightning bolts of the portal, and the next, it was all blown away by an explosion of white energy that raced towards the airships. There was no time to brace themselves as the Koopaling's vessel was knocked back by the wave, its shield turning pure green as energy flooded the craft. Every light was blazing, every alarm blaring and the pilots were struggling to keep the ship from flying out of control as the engines and lasers fired in all directions.

The Koopalings, the Lakipas, Kammy and the humans staggered to their feet as the ship slowly returned to level. "Is everyvone okay?" shouted Ludwig, looking back at his family and their guests.

A chorus of "yeah"s and "I'm okay"s responded, and a quick headcount let him know that everyone had managed to grab something before the ship nearly upended itself. He turned to look back through the windows, but all he could see was green.

"Morton, can vee contact zee ozzer ships?"

"Working on it," said the chatterbox Koopaling, toying with the switches on the communications station. All that was coming through the receivers was formless noise, however, and even when he got the cameras working again, the screens merely turned from a blaring white to glaring green. He hoped the surplus energy that was feeding the shields wore off soon.

Ludwig hoped so too. "Can vee vent any of zee extra energy to try to get zee shields transparent sooner zan later?"

"No – if we vent it out of the ship, it'll just join the shields on its own accord outside, and that might lead to instability," said Iggy.

Ludwig nodded – he had a feeling that would be the case, but he figured he'd ask for a second opinion anyway. He looked over at Kammy, planning to ask her to try to use her Crystal Ball to contact any crystal gazers on the other airships, but she already had her glass out and it was glowing pure white, totally useless for the time being. They both hoped the magical instrument would recover fairly quickly, but as it turned out, it just barely cleared up before the telecommunication systems, which Morton got working after a couple minutes.

They soon found that the other airships were fine, including the wooden ones, which had managed to get to the outer reaches of the blast range. They reported that there had been a massive explosion – a circular dome of energy that was as tall as it had been wide. Indeed, when the shields finally let up, the Koopalings found themselves bathed in sunlight, for the energy had boiled away the clouds. Below them, the water was still pitching about, but the whirlpool was completely gone, the hole in the ocean having collapsed and filled back up while the airships floated blindly in the sky.

There was no sign of the floating platform.

-x-

Falling.

Or flying.

Or maybe just being blown by the wind.

Bowser opened his eyes. It was just him and Bowselta, floating flat out and spread-eagled in the white expanse, their hands still latched onto the Mystic Meteor. Bowselta's eyes were closed, and while Bowser could only see part of her body beyond her expressionless face and blowing hair, he knew she was not in good shape. Both shoulders had splotches of black, and the few glimpses of her shell through the tangles of blue and purple looked much too dark. Bowser's gut wrenched at the sight, but when he looked down, he was met with a sight as equally troubling as he realized that his first impression had been right.

They _were_ falling.

And there was nothing below but a black abyss. Deeper than the deepest pit. It was better than falling into the portal, but not by much. Slowly, the whiteness around him was beginning to fade as well, and over the whistling of the wind, Bowser now heard another sound: the roaring of water. The ocean was crashing in on them from all sides, coming together in a horrible, swirling, crushing collision of waves now filling up the abyss – rising towards the falling Dragon-Koopas far too quickly.

"Crap," he hissed, wrenching his hands free of the Meteor one by one, not taking time to marvel at how much strength it actually took as he grabbed Bowselta's wrists instead of the rock and began pulling her towards him. The feel of Bowser's hands hurriedly traveling up her arms roused Bowselta from her own unconsciousness and her eyes opened just as he threw his arms around the back of her shell.

"Wha-?"

"Hold on!" was all Bowser had time to say, but the towering walls of rushing water closing in on them gave Bowselta all the explanation she needed. Hugging the Mystic Meteor to her chest with one arm, Bowselta dislodged her other hand and reached forward under Bowser's arm, grabbing the edge of his shell. Together, they managed to lever their bodies against each other, and not a moment too soon as they were almost immediately plunged into the rising brine.

The water was freezing and moving so fast it almost stung as is sent the Dragon-Koopas spinning and tumbling through the deep. His arms wrapped clear across her shell and his hands wrapped around the opposing rims to keep it that way, Bowser squeezed his wife as hard as he could against the sucking riptides. For her part, Bowselta secured their lower bodies by digging her toe claws into Bowser's fleshy hips and wrapping her tail as best she could around his, straining against the water that relentlessly tried to pry them apart.

They couldn't fight the whirling, twisting slipstreams; they couldn't tell which way was up or down as they rolled and pitched in the churning abyss; they could barely even think as the water pounded at their exhausted forms from all directions. Their eyes squeezed shut against the blinding fury of the water, it was all they could do to cling to each other amidst the violent chaos of the annealing ocean, the unending currents dragging them ever deeper into the crushing darkness of the depths.

-x-

"Keep looking," said Ludwig, his eyes fixed on the water as the airship hovered above the subsiding waves, its bow dipped downward to give the bridge a clearer view of what lay below. But nothing lay below, and time was ticking away. The sea was growing calm, the air was still, and the wooden airships were rejoining the group, but there was still no sight of Bowser or Bowselta.

The Koopa who had addressed the Koopaling nodded obediently and turned back to the communications channel, conveying the message to the wooden airships: they had wanted to know it this was a search or a vigil, and he had an answer for them. Peach frowned, looking from the Koopa back to Ludwig, and then at the other Koopalings. Most were lined up along the railing of the bridge, as were Emerald, Crystal and Kammy, with Kamek floating overhead, all of them looking out over the sea, as if they could use their eyes to spot something the scanners missed.

Mario, Luigi and Daisy were also keen to know the fate of Bowser and Bowselta, but instead chose to stick with the scanners, and were watching the monitor bank on the wall. Roy stood off to the side, arms crossed and his face turned towards the monitors, although behind the sunglasses, he could have easily been keeping his eyes on the humans, lest they tried to pull a fast one while the Koopas were preoccupied. Or perhaps sticking to the monitors was an attempt to keep up his nonchalant appearances – Peach didn't know him well enough to say for sure.

Iggy and Morton weren't lined up with their siblings either, with the younger brother working the surveillance control panel, while Iggy fiddled with the wiring leading out from it, trying to boost the depths that the scanners could penetrate. The airships had long ago recovered from the energy surge, however, and Peach figured their insistence that something must still be interfering was just desperation, and that no amount of tinkering would make the search any less futile, even if she wished otherwise. It broke her heart to see the despondent children, grown as they were. She could barely keep her grief for her father under control, and she could hardly image what it must be like to lose both parents, especially after everything the family had gone through in the past few weeks. They were in denial for now, but so had she when her father lay dying – she insisted he would live despite the blood and the bullet – she had _begged_ him to live, and now the Koopalings waiting for their parents to return from a place where no one comes back.

She took a deep breath and slowly walked back over to Ludwig. Junior saw her coming and scooted over to give her room on the railing. He hoped she was there to help watch for Bowser – just as he would have been there for her, but even though she faced the water, her eyes were on the eldest Koopaling.

"Ludwig… it's been fifteen minutes…"

"Is zat all? It seemed longer."

The sneer in the usually polite Koopaling's voice took Peach by surprise, but he _was_ going through a lot, after all. "Maybe… It would be better if…"

"If I call off zee search?" He cut in, shaking his head, his eyes still on the water. "Not a chance."

"But why?" The princess turned to look up at the eldest Koopaling, her own eyes filling with tears. "You know as much as I do that- that…" she struggled to find a way to force the Koopalings to face reality as gently as possible. "Bowselta knew she wasn't coming back from this – you said so yourself. And- and as much as I wish it were otherwise, she couldn't have done it alone – she didn't do it alone. Bowser… Bowser wouldn't let her die, he wouldn't come back without her – he couldn't come back without her, and, and she had lost so much energy already… Ludwig, I am so, so sorry. He was my friend and I wish there had been another way – for all of this, but… they're gone."

"I am perfectly avare of zee situation," said Ludwig, his red eyes steely as he continued to stare at the water. "Vee all are – but you of all people should understand our desire to not give up on hope so soon."

Peach looked at him for a moment, but then turned away, gazing out over the water too. She wished he was right to keep up hope, but the more she thought about it, the more she became convinced this was always how it was meant to turn out. Bowselta's plan hinged on her sacrificing herself to protect the world and turn a villainous invasion into a loving parting gift, but perhaps the world was not meant to be Bowser's solace. Bowselta had not planned on Bowser needing to help her seal the rift, but the Stars would have known she didn't have enough energy – that both would need to make the sacrifice, with neither one having to live with the grief of losing the other. It was a far greater tragedy for the Koopalings to be sure, and she too would miss her old friend, but Peach was sure the Star's subversion of Bowselta's plan was a kindness to Bowser.

In fact, Peach suspected it was a kindness to many more, and while she was genuinely sad about Bowser and felt bad for the Koopalings, her head was also buzzing with the knowledge that there was indeed a way for the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland to be free of the Koopas. But she had to know for sure, and while the compassionate part of her heart told her to stay quiet, the truth was, she cared about the wellbeing of her people more than she cared about the Koopalings. And so, she turned to Ludwig once more. "You're right, I'm sorry. I would do the same."

Ludwig grunted an acknowledgement.

Peach reached up and wiped at her eyes. "And you know, I _hope_ you're right, but it's just, I'm worried. About you, and, well, about everyone, really. It's just, everything's a little crazy right now – everything's changed so much, and I just worry, if- if they _are_ gone, then, that complicates things, and I wonder… what will happen to us? To me and Daisy, and our kingdoms?"

"Vell… I'm zee heir to zee Koopa szrone so I guess it'll all fall to me," Ludwig smirked wryly. "Fancy zat – you and Daisy, tventy years my senior, vill be _my_ vards. Makes zee _lack_ of an age difference between you and my parents seem much less awkvard by comparison…"

"Yeah, it is rather precarious…" nodded Peach with a smile, but behind it, her face was strained, and she had to take a deep steadying breath before she could make her play. "And really, all things considered… It might just be easier if things went back to normal. I mean, it'll never be the same, but I'm sure we could become great allies."

"Vee are already allies," said Ludwig woodenly, the smile gone from his face too, although he still wasn't looking at Peach.

"But you invaded us," said the Mushroom Princess, before quickly backpedaling. "I mean, your parents did – but you don't have to go through with it. I know you're a reasonable person, Ludwig – you _and_ your siblings are. Bowser was a good guy at heart, but he was wrong to want to rule the world, and I know all she wanted was to make him happy, but Bowselta was wrong too. No one should take anything by force – the human invasion should have shown them that, but I suppose their nature was just too deep in the bone, but you are not them, Ludwig. I'll admit, I don't know you or your siblings as well as I would like – as well as I wish to hope to _get_ to know you, but I do know that ruling the world was Bowser and Bowselta's dream, not yours. Please, do the right thing."

Ludwig listened to Peach's speech, as did everyone else on the bridge – Peach may have kept her voice down, but sound travels far in a silent room. Now all eyes turned to Ludwig; he knew the other Koopalings would be eager to weigh in, but he was glad to see they had the common sense to let him answer. Even Junior was biting his tongue, although the glare he was shooting his older brother made it clear that if Ludwig gave the wrong answer, the youngest Koopaling would make his opinion clear. But Junior didn't need to worry – there was only one answer, and after taking a short pause to gather his thoughts, Ludwig spoke.

"You expect me… to give up _everysing_ my parents _ever_ vorked for? To return zee land zat my Fazzer dreamed of his entire life? To- to undo zee victory zat my Muzzer vas villing to sacrifice her _life_ for?" Ludwig was still facing the empty ocean, but he turned his sights on Peach, and the intensity of the flashing red eye glowering down at her caused her to step back. "I vould _never_ disrespect my parents like zat – I vould sooner die zan betray zem like zat. All of us vould!"

"Yeah!" chorused the other seven Koopalings, with Kammy joining in too. Peach jumped at the sudden burst of noise, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mario, Luigi and Daisy bracing for a fight if things got nasty, but that worried her even more.

"I- I didn't mean-"

"You meant vat you said," said Ludwig, turning his head in Peach's direction, yet still keeping his body facing the water, both hands on the railing. "And I don't blame you for seeing a potential vay out and running vit it – I vould have done zee same had our positions been reversed…" He had been speaking amicably, but when he paused, his expression darkened once more. "But you didn't look at it from our perspective, did you? If I let you go, zat not only undermines zeir final victory, but all zee years zat preceded it – it's bad enough zat zee Koopa Kingdom wasted so much on all zose years of fighting, but at least zis vay, Muzzer and Fazzer are vindicated. Zey brought zee Koopas zee glory no one sought vas possible, and now, all zose losses veren't for nossing after all. But if zis vas just anozzer failed ploy, zen zat's all it ever vas – failures. And zey'll be failures too. Sure, Muzzer vill always be remembered as Koopa's heir, who sacrificed herself to close zee rift, and hopefully zey von't forget zat Fazzer vas zere every step of zee vay… But a few days of heroism can not erase years of futile villainy – and _zat's_ vy you're so sure zey're gone, aren't you? You figure zee Stars still aren't prepared to let zem vin, I'd vager."

Peach lowered her eyes, confirming Ludwig's suspicion. "Vonce zee hype settles down and zey remember zat Muzzer vas, first and foremost, a mortal queen, I vant zem to remember her as a good queen. And I vant zem to remember Fazzer as a good king – a _great_ king – greater zan Morton Koopa could have hoped to be. Zey saved zee vorld, and zey united zee lands, and nossing vill take zat avay from zem zis time. Not you, not Mario over zere, and certainly not me."

Peach nodded. "I understand…"

"Besides, it's not _zat_ bad, is it? Vone country _is_ more secure zan szree, and no offence, but compared to a squabbling committee and its figurehead qveen, and a country vit a long history of invasions and kidnappings vit a plumber as its only solid defense, zee sometimes-villainous saviours of zee vorld are by far zee best choice for zee leadership. And if Muzzer and Fazzer can't take zeir rightful place at zee top of zee vorld zey created… Vell, it may _not_ be my lifelong dream, but filling in for zem suits me just fine." Ludwig smirked down at the shocked Mushroom Princess, and it was at that moment, as she looked from his bright red, heavy-lidded eyes, to his bushy blue eyebrows, to his prominent, furrowed forehead, to the mane of blue hair that topped the thick-set adult Dragon-Koopa, Peach was struck by just how closely he resembled his parents – both of them.

-x-

When Bowselta finally opened her eyes, all that greeted her was blackness. Not that there was much to see – she and Bowser were alone in the swirling waters, but the currents were finally starting to die down enough to be navigatible. Feeling Bowselta unwrap her tail and remove her toe claws from his sides, Bowser also opened his eyes, but it was a moment before he could even make out his wife's face, mere inches from his own. Catching his eye, she jutted her head to the side, and following her gaze, he could also make out the distant light of the surface – the hint of blue amidst a sea of black. The water was still tossing them about, but it was clear Bowselta wanted to start swimming, so Bowser reluctantly released his grip on her shell, but grabbed her free hand before the currents could separate them.

Bowselta resisted the urge to sigh – the air in her lungs was almost depleted of oxygen, but it still beat being full of water instead. Some areas of the Mushroom World had magical water that could be breathed like air, but the portal wasn't one of them, and had she not been holding the Mystic Meteor, Bowselta would have drowned a while ago. Fortunately for her, the rock was providing her with pure energy to survive off of, replacing her cells' need to respirate and make energy chemically. Bowser had also been living off the Meteor, but being a Near Immortal, he could switch to pure energy naturally. However, while he wouldn't drown, he _would_ burn a lot of energy this way – not as much as coming back from the dead always cost him, but Bowselta still wanted to minimize the wastage, especially after he had given so much to merge the Meteor. They would have to swim fast – and holding hands was not an efficient way to go about doing that.

She shook her head at him, and as soon as she figured out which was now up, she jerked her hand free and made a break for the surface. Taken aback, Bowser was pushed away from her by the current, but soon regained composure and started fighting it, beating at the water with his arms and legs and frantically following after Bowselta. Despite the fact that his wife had a head start and was naturally a faster swimmer than her big bulky husband, Bowser soon caught up to Bowselta. At first he wondered if she was going slow on purpose, but then he realized the Meteor must be weighing her down. She was using both hands to hold it firmly against her body on her lower chest, using her natural curves to try and restore some aerodynamics to her form, all the while using her legs and tail to propel her through the water, but it was obviously tough going.

Their progress was further hampered by the fact that the ocean was still far from still, and more than once, Bowser found himself blown from Bowselta's side by a slipstream, or suddenly had her pulled from his sight, leaving him panicky until he caught sight of her again. He knew the Meteor must be making up for its weight with the energy it was giving her, but Bowser was still worried. He couldn't see them in the darkness, but he knew she was covered in black marks, and Meteor or no Meteor, she had just lost a lot of energy, and he just hoped the rock was making sure she didn't lose any more.

Bowselta was all too aware of what she had been through, and part of her feared the iciness around her wasn't actually the water's fault. The Meteor brought her little warmth, but she told herself that was just because all the energy it was providing her was being used, not wasted as excess heat, but as the water stretched on and on above her, her mind started playing tricks. She thought back to her first portal trip – the brilliant light, the swirling chaos, and the black waters of the human ocean. She could have drowned then, but she was determined to get back to Bowser – and she tried to call on that determination again. Bowser had saved her life, and she wasn't going to let that go to waste a thousand leagues under the sea.

But the nagging fears wouldn't subside. Even as the water around them started turning from black to blue, Bowselta was flashing back. She remembered bursting through the surface then and realizing with a jolt that she was on another planet – that Bowser and the Koopalings were further away than she could have ever imagined. She remembered the nightmares that plagued her for years of the empty losses and drowning depths, and fought off the terror she felt towards the ocean that was crushing down on her again. But it wasn't the same ocean – it couldn't be. The light above was too bright – it was daytime, not night. It was daylight. Or was it? Her world's portal was supposed to be overcast, wasn't it? Even as she squeezed her eyes shut and forced the fears out of her head, she began to kick her legs at a faster, frantic pace. She needed to get to the surface – she needed to know they were home.

-x-

"Ow!" Iggy's startled yelp broke the uneasy silence that had fallen as Ludwig and Peach stared each other down.

"What did you do?" admonished Morton as the surveillance console started beeping.

"I didn't do anything," said Iggy. "It just came alive – and zapped me."

Morton frowned as he fiddled with the console, but Iggy was right: nothing seemed wrong with it. "But if you didn't do it then that means…" his eyes widened. "We have a contact!" He turned to the others along the railing. "_We have a contact!_"

"What!" "Really!" "Where!" the other Koopaling could hardly believe their ears.

"It's right below us!" said Morton.

"Back zee ship up!" ordered Ludwig, forgetting all about Peach and leaning over the rail, his eyes flashing across the water while the other Koopas and the Mushroom Princess herself did the same on either side. There wasn't a heart that wasn't racing on any of the ships, everyone hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.

-x-

The world was blue, and while it threw the black splotches that now covered Bowselta from her neck to her tail into gut-wrenching relief, she was swimming faster than ever and Bowser couldn't afford to slow down and fret. The surface was glimmering above them, and they could make out shadows over the water, turning some areas dark. One shadow was near – it was large, so it must be one of the forcefield-bearing airships. There was certainly no human ship like it, and no sea-faring vessels anywhere in sight, and Bowselta was sure they were on the Mushroom World, but her heart was still pounding as she rose, resisting the urge to reach out and claw at the water with her arms.

Onward and onward they swam, the surface always seeming like it was only a few strokes higher, yet never getting any closer. Their lungs and muscles alike screaming in agony, and their blood boiling with nitrogen as the pressure dropped away, but the pain was nothing. Bubbles spilled from their mouths as the adrenaline broke their composure, but they were so close. The light was so blinding, the sound of the waves so deafening, but the surface was still out of reach. They urged themselves on. One more kick, one more stroke. Faster and faster.

And suddenly they were through, bursting into the air, gasping for breath, their heads spinning as they sputtered and fell back into the waves, every muscle twitching in the sudden absence of exertion. Blinking in the sunlight, the air foreign and sharp against their waterlogged eyes, the Dragon-Koopas looked around at the airships. Every single one was pointed in their direction – and they were making a lot of noise.

Horns were blaring all around, and being careful to aim far from the Dragon-Koopas and any other vessel, the forcefield-bearing airships sent volleys of lasers slicing across the water and through the air in a makeshift salute to their miraculously intact leaders. The passengers of the wooden ships were screaming and cheering, and the larger airships turned on their loudspeakers so that their crew could add to the celebrations.

But none were as loud as the group on the lead airship. The bridge was deafening as the Koopalings whooped and hollered and jumped around cheering, positively bubbling over with excitement, relief and euphoria. Even Roy had called out with joy when not one, but both of their parents appeared in the ocean, alive and well. Kammy was sobbing with happiness, and Wendy, Crystal and even Peach had tears in their eyes. Off to the side, Luigi and Daisy couldn't help but smile at the infectious celebrations, and Mario had also breathed a sigh of relief when his old nemesis had emerged from the depths. He would never consider Bowser a friend, and he would never forgive him for everything he had done, but despite it all, Mario was glad it hadn't ended that way after all.

Bowser and Bowselta smiled at the sounds of their children's joy, and while she knew that everyone there was watching her and Bowser, and that live videofeeds were probably being transmitted to the world at large as well, for once in her life, Bowselta didn't care. All eyes of the world were upon them, but all they could see were each other. She reached out a hand for Bowser, who took it instantly. "Bowser, the sun – it's _warm_."

Bowser made a noise somewhere between a sob and a laugh as he nodded. Bowselta was low enough in the water that the black marks were all submerged, out of sight and mind, and as she looked at him, she looked happier than he had seen her in a long time.

"We did it," grinned Bowser.

"We won…" nodded Bowselta.

"And about time!"

"We saved the world..."

"In your face, Mario."

"We're alive…"

"As if some puny rock could finish us off!"

"We're together…"

She sounded as if she could hardly believe it, but there was nothing that Bowser could have been more assured of as he gave her hand an extra hard squeeze. "Always."

And, while much of the world would always say that was the day the bad guys won, there can be no denying that as driven as they had been by hate and bitterness all their lives, at that moment, all the two Dragon-Koopas felt was love. And that is what the story of the King and Queen of the Koopas is about. In some respects, it is about how the role of hero and villain is in the eyes of the beholder. In other ways, it is arguing that there is no black and white, but merely shades of grey. Some continue to insist it's about how the biased Star Spirits were finally forced to let the other team win, but others feel it's love and hate that determines one's fate.

Mostly, however, it is a story about two people, the good things they did, and the bad; the things they did wrong, the things they got right; what they learned, and what they forgot; their mistakes, their losses, and their triumphs as well. Their names were Bowser and Bowselta Koopa, and this was the story of how they fell in love, had some kids, and saved the world.


	34. Epilogue: 2003

**A/N: And so it ends. While I'll still be writing oneshots, Shakespeare adaptations and maybe even the occasional game novelization, this is the last story in my main fanon series – or at least the last one for now. Call me crazy, but I still have dreams of actually getting some stuff published for real – stuff that starts long before **_**The Queen of the Koopas**_** and continues on past **_**Super Koopa World**_**. That being said, there might be a couple things here and there that I've left up to the imagination, but for the most part, I did try to tie up all the loose threads, so if I've missed something, by all means, point it out!**

**Thank you so much to everyone who stuck with the series this whole way, especially if you were unfortunate enough to be reading in real time and had to suffer through my horrendous updating delays… I hope this last stretch was worth the wait, and to everyone, I hope that I managed to end the series on a high note. I have never felt more pressure to get it right than I have for these last few chapters, and I sincerely hope it turned out okay.**

**And with that, I leave you to the final pages of the **_**Super Koopa**_** series. Thank you once again, now please, read, review, and most importantly of all, enjoy.**

-xx-

"I _thought_ that was you hiding up here," said Kammy, skimming across the ceiling of the Mushroom Kingdom Castle's main hall to where her brother floated. "You and Their Forgivingnesses may still not be best friends but you're allowed to be part of the group, you know."

"I know," snorted Kamek. "But the acoustics are better up here."

"Yeah, right. And since when did _you_ care so much about acoustics?" scoffed Kammy as she gingerly stepped onto the nearest chandelier. It wasn't sturdy as Koopan light fixtures, but it would hold her weight, and with a wave of the arm, her broomstick disappeared back into her Hammerspace.

"It's the new anthem of the Koopa Kingdom – I want to hear it at its best."

"Not with them playing," laughed Kammy, settling herself on the chandelier and looking down at the Koopalings performing the piece. Ludwig and Wendy were the only ones who had really taken to music, but Bowser and Bowselta had still insisted on all eight kids getting trained on at least one instrument – for occasions just like this. A Koopan anthem, performed by the Koopa royal family and written by their own Koopa heir (with some input from top Sarasaland and Mushroomian composers – Ludwig didn't need the help, but it was the gesture that counted). They might not have been a symphony, but Bowser and Bowselta were proud to sit and watch them perform, and the other onlookers seemed to be enjoying it as well.

Peach was there, naturally, as were Mario, Luigi, Daisy, and a number of other dignitaries. Emerald, now an official attaché to the crown Koopas, also sat in with Crystal, and Spiky Tom had even taken a break from supervising the reconstruction of the main Koopa Castle for the special unveiling of the anthem. Not that he was needed this late in the process – it had been nearly two months since the humans had gone, and the Koopa's home was nearly complete, although Kammy heard at least a couple of the kids were hoping to came back out to the Mushroom Kingdom before long.

Kammy was more interested in the Koopalings than the spectators, however. Ludwig stood at the front of the group with his violin, letting Iggy take over the role of piano player this time. Morton also knew how to play both piano and the keyboard, but Bowselta had opted for natural music only, and so he worked a massive tuba-like brass instrument instead, putting his lungs to good use and threatening to drown out the other players at times with his gusto. The only other wind instrument was Larry's flute – or more specifically, Bowselta's, since she had loaned him her flute for the special occasion, but the Koopaling was almost too nervous to put it to good use, and struggled to keep his breaths strong and steady. The other Koopalings' instruments were more contemporary than strictly orchestral, with Roy hammering out the beat on a sprawling drumset in the back, and Lemmy and Junior both playing guitars near the front. Wendy could play guitar too, as well as flute, but today, she was the lead singer, and with her pipes, she didn't even need a microphone as she stood next to Ludwig and belted out his anthem.

The old witch smiled as she listened to the words. A shortened version of the song was going to be the main anthem, but the full thing was pretty long – there was a lot of history and a lot of geography to cover. It made for an interesting song – and catchy too. "Well, I suppose I'm not being fair – they're not _so_ bad."

Kamek nodded.

Kammy looked sideways at him. "Course, I'm sure you'd like it even if they were a hoard of screeching Fuzzies, am I right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, you wanted the Koopas to rule the world just as much as they did – and now they are! It's been two months and everything's running smoothly. The Stars haven't rained retribution down upon us, the Meteor's securely guarded back in Dark Land, all traces of the Portal are gone..." Kammy shook her head, scarcely believing the Koopa's good fortunes after so many years of disappointment. "The people are peaceful, Mario's behaving himself, the new government system has been set up without a hitch – and now we've got an anthem to seal the deal!"

"First of all, an anthem does not make the nation. And second of all, they don't rule the world – they've got a quarter, at best."

"Psh," snorted Kammy, "you're just saying that because you don't want to admit you were wrong."

"Wrong? Wrong about what?"

"Your vision – from all those years ago? Of the powerful Koopa ruling the world?"

"Yes, of course I know that vision, you don't need to remind me."

"Well, don't you see? It's come true after all. Your initial guess that it was Morton _was_ wrong, but your dismissal of the vision was wrong too – it wasn't a trick, it was real – and it was of Bowser!"

"No it wasn't," said Kamek.

Kammy growled in frustration. "Come on, Kamek, I thought you were on His Prognosticatedness's side again."

"I am."

"Then why won't you accept that he's the great and powerful Koopa from your visions?"

"Because he's not."

"Why?" demanded Kammy, and then a thought to her. "Is it Bowselta?"

"What? The vision? Hell no," snorted Kamek, earning a reproachful glare from Kammy. "I may not have it in for her anymore but she still got me killed and exiled to a volcano for nine years," he said defensively. "Ya don't forgive and forget someone for that quite so easily."

"You brought that on yourself, and you hated her way before that too," argued the old witch. "And don't change the subject."

Kamek rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine, you were right – I was too hasty to give up on the vision, but it's not Bowser, and it's not Bowselta either."

"But-"

"Let me finish," growled the ghost. "Like I said before, they don't rule the world. Now, my vision was of the world itself in the hand of a Koopa – but the planet wasn't spinning, so I only saw the one half, and in the strictest of interpretations, I suppose we could ignore the Waffle Kingdom's hemisphere. But even when you only consider our half of the planet, we're only halfway there."

"_So far_," Kammy couldn't resist the urge to cut in. "Bowser and Bowselta are going to wait and let the people cool off for a bit, but you know that won't last. Your ol' buddy Travali did a number to the Alligator Archipelago – a lot of the feudal tribes were almost wiped out, and as soon as they regroup, the Kremlings are gonna use that as an opportunity to spread even further and solidify their grip on those water. There's no way Their Caliphatenesses are going to let that happen – even Ludwig agrees that as soon as the Kremlings make their move, we will too. Hopefully there will be enough time for the dust to settle first, but even if the land is dragged into more fighting sooner than later, besting pirates is a pretty safe campaign."

"Yes, I know that plan – I may not have been hanging out with you all this time but I wasn't hiding under a rock, you know – I keep up to date. But even if all the independent nations of the Alligator Archipelago join us after we save their asses, that's still not everything."

"Jewelry Land's a pushover – they know we could smush 'em, and as soon as Their Ingressivenesses come knocking, they'll leap at the chance to join us peacefully."

"Yes, but if Their Highnesses act too soon, they'll look like greedy tyrants again and then we'll have a revolution on our hands."

"Worst case scenario," said Kammy with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Yes, but one thing I will say about Bowselta is that she is very cautious when it comes to crossing these sorts of lines," said Kamek. "She's going to wait quite a while before putting the squeeze on Jewelry Land, and the Beanbean Kingdom will take even longer to acquire. Jewelry Land may take a lot of pride in their magic gemstones, but that's nothing compared to the Beans and their unique little corner of the world. Lemme tell ya, it took forever for the average Bean to even accept Little Fungitown – when faced with amalgamation with an entire continent of non-Beanish cultures and species, those little xenophobes might just be stupid enough to try and fight back."

"Their Diplomaticnesses know that," interrupted Kammy. "And you said so yourself – Her Canniness knows better than to go making us the bad guys again, but it won't come to that. I'm sure you heard the rumours, y'know, that King Peasley isn't, ahhh… interested, shall we say, in reproducing? At least, not with any lady Beans…"

"Kammy, I spent every vacation I _ever had_ in that country – trust me, those aren't rumours, they're facts."

"Then you know the dynasty is on its way out – and they're going to need something to replace it with. As long as we ensure them that their unique heritage will be respected and preserved, they should take us up on the offer."

"Yes, but think about it – Peasley's only in his 40s: it'll be decades before he's ready to start talking to us about inheriting his country."

"So?"

"So, Bowser and Bowselta don't _have_ decades," hissed Kamek. Kammy opened her mouth to protest, but her brother hurried onward. "Don't try to deny it – it's plain to see just by looking at her that Bowselta's years are numbered."

"The Marks don't spread _that_ quickly," Kammy interjected. "The only reason her initial Mark of the Dead spread so much recently was because they were on the run from the humans, burning pure energy instead of food and water, and then there was all the fighting, and then-"

"And then combining the Meteor – which should have finished her off, but Bowser intervened, and he must have given it a _lot_ of energy for it to have spared her at all."

"He's a Near Immortal, he could afford it."

"No, he couldn't," said Kamek. "Near Immortals may be born with incredible amounts of energy, but if you look through the history books, that just means they throw it away so much faster than normal Dragon-Koopas. Alistor Magrippa died when he was _forty-three_, and frankly, after all the energy Bowser's poured into fighting Mario, after all those deaths and revivals… I'm surprised he lived _this_ long."

"Don't you start with that disparaging-"

"It's not disparaging – if anything, it's a testament to how powerful he really is."

"And yet you still say he's not the Koopa from your vision."

Kamek sighed. "Look… Even if Bowser and Bowselta cut their power consumption right down to the bare minimum – and with their taste for violent confrontations, they _won't_ – I give them… ten, eleven years – if they're lucky. They'll secure the Alligator Archipelago well before that, and they'll probably use their dying days to bring Jewelry Land into the fold – market it as a last hurrah, one last good deed towards unity, what have you."

Kammy nodded. "Her Machiavellianness's last swan song might not have turned out as planned, but that doesn't mean she won't use the same strategy again: who would deny a dying woman her last gift to her loved ones?"

"Exactly," said Kamek. "But that'll be it, and it'll be up to those loved ones to finish the job and get the Beanbean Kingdom to join us – and only _then_ will my vision come true."

"Wait, so you're saying…"

The ghost nodded, a grin spreading across his face over the revelation he was sharing with his sister. "It may have been Bowser's dream, and it may have been Bowselta's schemes that made it possible, but they're not the ones who will rule the world – _they_ will." He turned and looked down at the crowd below him as he finished, and Kammy followed his gaze. The song was rising to a crescendo, and the two Magikoopas, one living and one dead, watched as the grandchildren of both King Morton and Queen Koopa filled the castle with a wave of music. Kamek waited until the sound had subsided, and as the last note faded, he finished his thought, his eyes still locked on the lead figure below. "Yes… I have no doubt in my mind – the Koopa I saw in my vision… was Ludwig."

All that came after was applause.

**The End**


End file.
